Dirty Little Secrets
by BabyMyst
Summary: Emma was an assertive young girl trying to find her brother. When she found him, her life only became more confusing. Leave it to a certain stubborn Brooklyn newsie to only complicate it further.
1. Reunion

**Dirty Little Secret**

By: Myst

Disclaimer: To cover throughout this entire story, if you recognize anyone, I sadly do not own them. In fact I only own Emma/Myst. Anyone else is either taken from the movie, or borrowed from people who wanted to have a part in here.

**Chapter 1 : Reunion**

The warm summer air danced around her, enticing her to continue even though her feet were screaming in protest. As she walked through the streets of New York, her mind began to wander to the beautiful hues of orange and yellow encircling the world around her. The setting sun was a welcomed blessing as it brought with it a wonderful, soft breeze.

_What if he doesn't remember? What if he has forgotten me?_ Emma tried with all her might to force those thoughts out of her mind. Trying desperately to calm her nerves, she tucked a loose strand of honey blonde hair back behind her ear. As she rounded the last corner, she gasped.. Could it really be true, had she finally found him?

Forcing her feet to move forward, she began a seemingly endless journey to a large brown wooden door with a tattered sign reading Newsboy's Lodging House hanging just above. Slowly, she began to turn the door knob, part of her almost silently wishing it would be locked. Wishing this to be over. Just wishing.

Of course, lady luck decided not to grace Emma with her presence. Not only was the door not lock, she opened it to find a room completely packed with newsies…male newsies… ranging in all ages. _Well duh, NewsBOYS lodging house_ she silently told herself. Still, part of her was in shock that there were so many, and despite her best efforts, a gasp snuck out of her mouth.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" A man about Emma's age walked over to her. He wasn't much taller than her, but his Italian features seemed stark and life-worn. Emma began to glance around, trying desperately not to cringe at everyone's sudden interest in her.

"Umm.. Hello. I'm trying to find a newsie."

"Well ya came to the right place lady." The young man spit in his hand and held it out to her. "The names Racetrack."

"You have GOT to be kidding me." She lifted one eyebrow and stared back at him in disgust. After the week of travelling she just had.. she was so not in the mood to be pleasant.

Giving her a small smirk, and surprisingly not taking offense to her attitude, Race simply wiped his hand on his pant leg before looking back over at her and chuckling. "Ya got some spirit in ya, I like that. So who's ya lookin for?"

"Fra.. wait no.." Emma reached into a small side pocket on her skirt to pull out a tattered piece of paper with a single name written across it Jack Kelly. "Jack..Jack Kelly? Have you ever heard of him?"

A few of the men around her began murmuring to one another, but Emma couldn't quite single in on any one muted conversation. Race however just continued to looked at her, only now, with slight suspicion. "Jack? Ya. I've heard of him. But what are ya lookin for him for?"

"For all intensive purposes, consider me one of his.. old friends."

"Old Friends?" a voice boomed from behind her. Quickly, Emma turned around. She had found him. After all this time, she had finally found him! He towered over her, confusion blanketing his face. Tried as she did, she couldn't find the strength to do anything more then stare. So many emotions, so many memories, her mind was stuck in a complete state of disarray.

"Hello? Ya still alive in there?" Jack began to poke her shoulder, trying to get her to focus. Suddenly she began to fight to hold the tears begging to fall.

It felt like it took every breath of strength she had, but finally she found a way to force a word out. A single word. "Francis?" at that, the tears she had been desperately clinging on to, slowly began to fall.

At first, Jack looked at her a bit taken back. Then he began to squint his eyes, as thought he was having trouble focusing on her. "E…Emma?" he tentatively questioned.

At the sound of her name from his lips her tears began to fall harder. She flung herself at him, gathering him up in the tightest embrace she could muster. She had found him, and he _did_ remember.

The murmured conversations surrounding her began to pick up again, but this time she didn't care what any of them had to say. Slowly Jack began to pull away from her only slightly to give her a quick inspection. "Emma? It is really you! What happened to ya? Where did ya go? I tried to find ya but I was too late!" He once again drew her into him, as thought afraid she was going to disappear before his very eyes.

Emma was smiling so hard and trying to wipe her tears away when she began to think about how exactly she was going to answer those questions. Her planning had never got this far, part of her truly never believed she would find him again. Suddenly someone behind her cleared their throat in an attempt to get some attention. She was quick to register this amazingly perfect distraction and turned to see every newsies staring at the couple with utter confusion.

"Guys! This is Emma! My baby sister!" Jack eagerly explained to the boys. Emma glanced over in Jack's direction and gave him a loving eye roll.

"I'm not a baby anymore _Jack_" she teased. _Jack?_ Over the past week since she learned of this alias she had been trying to figure out where in the hell he got it from. _Kelly_ was their mother's maiden name, she understood that, but _Jack_…no idea. She figured it would be a good, safe conversation to have with him while she tried to avoid his question of her past. Emma regretted nothing from her past, but if Francis was the same overly protective brother from her childhood.. he would not understand.

"Cowboy, ya have a sister?" Race asked, still in complete shock.

"_Cowboy_? You still go by that name?" Emma asked while trying her best to suppress a laughter. Her mind began to flash back to when the two were younger. Jack was older then her by almost two years and the two were quite close a children. They would run around their living room pretending to be newsies and had even given each other 'newsie names'. She called him Cowboy because he was obsessed with Cowboys and Indians. His side of the room was a shrine to all things western. When he ran away, she was so distraught. But she understood why he did it.

"Of course I do!" he proudly announced, drawing her out of her thoughts. She vaguely took note that everyone had returned to their own conversations and was grateful. She was beginning to feel like she was on fire from the spot light. Jack ushered her back outside to the front step so they could talk more privately. "So Emma, What happened once I left?"

_Great_ she thought, having still not come up with a story. She took a deep breath and began to try and remember her past, a past she'd like nothing more than to forget. Jack just sat silently, giving her a chance to tell him at her own speed. She thought back to just before Francis ran away. Their family was never well off. They were definitely lower, middle class, but they were happy. Their parents were so in love, and it was obvious.

It began in the summer of 1891. Their mother, after fighting a nasty pneumonia for almost a month, passed away. That was when her family became ripped apart. Over the next year, her father, normally a happy and loving man, sunk deep into a depression. He quit his job and began to drink heavily. At first he was just a sad drunk, constantly crying and blaming himself for the death, wishing he had done something more. Then, he became angry. He began taking his anger out on Francis. In the beginning he would just slap him, then about an hour later come back crying and begging Francis to forgive him. One day, he just stopped apologizing. He started punching him, beating him. Francis couldn't take it anymore.

So one night, Francis woke Emma up in the middle of the night and said he was leaving, said he was going to become a newsie. Emma remembered begging him to take her with him. But since their father had never once laid a hand on Emma, Francis told her to stay. He would go make enough to support the two of them and then come back for her. So she waited.

"About a week after you left," she began slowly, "Dad started to .. to attack me. He blamed me for you running away, said I told you to do it, and that I needed to learn my place in the household." She heard Francis start to interrupt her but she stopped him. "I don't blame you for what happened. I know only did what you thought was best. Anyways," she continued, "One day he told me to make him a drink, but I accidently spilled it all over him. He was so furious, he just pinned me down and started pummeling me. I didn't know what to do. I somehow managed to kick him, right where it counted. While he was bent over, I ran as fast as I could. I made it out to the street before he caught back up with me." Her eyes began to prickle with tears as she forced herself to relive what happened to her. Jack placed his arm around her to comfort her, but there was no turning back now, he deserved to know what happened.

"I hung in there long enough to see him pulled off of me by some police men. After about a week spent in the hospital, they sent me to live with Grandma Sullivan." The two both shared a grimace of knowledge. Their grandmother was not exactly the nicest person in the world. She was a money hungry old woman who lived down in Pennsylvania who despised both them and their mother. She always blamed them for her son not excelling in life.

"She hated me. She thought it was my fault dad got arrested. So one day I just ran away. I did odd jobs to make enough money so I could come and find you. And.. well.. here I am!" She finished lamely. Emma decided that she just wouldn't be specific on what jobs _exactly_ she held. She knew her brother just wouldn't understand.

"Emma, if I had known.." Jack began slowly, "I should have taken you with me. I never should have left you with _him_."

Trying desperately to end the overly depressing story, Emma turned to Francis and just smiled. "So, _Jack_? Where did that name come from?"

Taking her hint to drop the conversation, Jack started chuckling. Looking around to ensure no one was listening, he turned back to her and started whispering. "I saw the name inside one of these western books I had with me. But don't tell no one."

"So… I guess that means you want me to call you Jack, not Francis," she said with a smile and he began nodding back at her sheepishly. "Well Jack. Nice to meet you." She held out her hand in a joking manner.

"Well come on, " Jack stood up and grabbed her outstretched hand to pull her upright. "Lets go get you a bunk. Tomorrow, I'll show ya the ropes!"

*

Jack led her back inside an over to an elderly man Emma hadn't noticed earlier. He agreed to let her stay at the lodging house, even though it was suppose to be for guys only. Once the trio reached the upstairs, Emma's stomach completely fell out.

Not only was the room filled with yet more boys, but it seemed to be completely lined with bunk beds. _Do they really expect me to sleep in the same room as all over them?!_

As though he sensed her panic, Kloppman gave her a small smile. "Don't worry, miss. We have a single room off to the back of the room. Usually I keep it for sick newsies, but you can rest there for now. But if someone needs to use it…best to get use to livin' with these boys." He sent her a quick wink as she nodded in his direction.

When they got to the sick room, Emma's new room, she took a look around. There really wasn't much to look at, just a simple bed with a small nightstand beside it. In the corner stood an extremely well-worn dresser with three drawers. The room was simple, but she loved every aspect of it. She already felt at home.

As Kloppman left to head back downstairs, Jack turned to Emma, "Hey, just so ya know, we always get up pretty early to get our papes. So try an get as much rest as possible tonight."

"Actually Jack, I was planning on getting some stuff tomorrow. Mind if we just meet around lunch time?"

Jack gave her a suspicious look but thankfully did not press the issue. "Ya, I can start teachin ya on the afternoon edition." He leaned over to kiss her forehead. "Emma, I'm happy you're here."

"Me too." She smiled back up at him. Jack wished her good night then headed back out of the room, leaving her to her own thoughts once again.

She peeked around the room a bit before settling on the bed. Within only a few minutes, the whole world around her faded to black.

*

The next morning, Emma woke up. Judging from the light pouring in her room, she guessed it to be around 9 o'clock. She rushed into the bathroom to freshen up. She had to take care of some business before she met up with Jack for lunch.

Emma walked through the street until she found a small series of stores. Noting one that was dedicated to clothing, she headed inside. She had decided the get some more newsies appropriate garb, figuring a nice white blouse with lace trimming her neckline and a dark blue skirt with a matching satin sash would probably make her stand out.

Reaching in her pocket she found thirty bucks, plenty to get an outfit or two. Plus she had some other items to buy from a general store. About an hour later she was walking out of the clothing store with two new outfits, a black newsie hat, a jacket with matching gloves for the winter time, and a new pair of shoes. Remember how badly her feet were still screaming at her from a week's worth of walking, the new shoes were a number one priority.

Two stores over was a general store where she was able to pick up basic items like a hair brush, tooth brush, and a journal. She use to love keeping a journal when she was growing up and she missed being able to write things down, being able to spill your emotions with no repercussions. Looking at a clock inside the general store, she realized she had just enough time to make it back to the lodging house, change, and head out to meet Jack.

After putting her clothes away, she decided on a simple pair of black pants with a white shirt and black suspenders. She pulled her long blonde hair back into a low ponytail and grabbed her new hat. She headed down stairs to find Kloppman sitting behind his counter reading. He was able to tell her the fastest route to a restaurant named Tibby's where she could find Jack.

Five minutes later she was able to find the restaurant and sure enough, Jack was waiting out front.

"Emma? Where did ya get them new clothes?" Jack asked as she walked over to him.

"I told you, I had some stuff to take care of this morning. So.. how do I look?" She replied while grinning up at him.

"Like a newsie." He beamed back at her before ushering her inside.

Again, Emma found herself surrounded by more newsies than she could count. When her and Jack found a table they were quickly joined by three others. One she recognized from yesterday as Racetrack.

"So, you're Cowboy's sister? I'm Blink, Kid Blink." She looked over at the one holding his hand out towards her. He had sandy blonde hair and an eye patch over his left eye. She decided it would be to rude to ask him why, so she simply shook his hand and continued with introductions.

"Hiya. I'm Mush," said a guy sitting across from her. He had short curly brown hair and the cutest puppy dog brown eyes she had ever seen. About thirty more guys rushed over to introduce themselves but in all honesty, she lost all ability to recall anything they were saying. When thirty people are all rushing at you, it is hard to decipher what is being said, so she just nodded and smiled as if on que.

After about ten minutes of this, the restaurant finally began to settle down. Soon they were ordering their lunches, while the men of her table began to tell her all about some strike they had went through last year. She was so interested in it, she hardly noticed when her food was brought over to her.

After eating in almost silence for a grand total of two minutes, Racetrack turned to her, "So Emma, you plannin on becoming a newsie?"

"Well that would explain why I'm here." So told him jokingly and the table all began to laugh.

"Well the only reason I'm askin is cause, ya know, ya need a newsie name, kid."

"I use to call her Baby," Jack decided to contribution, however this only earned him a teasing glare from Emma.

"Yeah, when we were younger. That was the 'newsies' name he had come up with for me." She explained to the others. "But what Jack here is failing to realize is, I'm not a little kid any more."

"Hey, your still younger than me," he joked back to her.

After about five minutes of passing names back and forth and completely ignoring her comments, they finally settled on one, 'Myst', since she was Jack's mysterious sister that no one knew about.

She liked the name, and it suited her more then any of them could ever even realize. There was so much she was still hiding from Jack, but she decided not to let her guilt eat away at her for the moment.

Once they were done with lunch, Myst and Jack left for the distribution center with Jack leading the way. She bought herself ten papers to start out with and headed out to start her new life.

**Author's Note: **This is my first published fanfic so please leave reviews to let me know if I should change anything. ;) Also I'm looking for a female to pair with Race, if anyone is up for it let me know. I could just make someone up but I figured there has to be someone out there willing to take the job! lol


	2. Gathering

**Chapter 2 : The Gathering**

For the next two weeks, Myst slowly began to fall into a routine. Though still not quite the most skilled seller, she was easily able to average around forty papes a day. If Jack wasn't leading her around, you could always find Race close by. The two had instantly bonded. Myst was loving every moment spent as a newsie. More importantly she was loving spending time with Jack. And he was loving being extremely over-protective of her, making up for lost time she had supposed. But she didn't mind.

After spending only two days with the newsies, she came to a certain decision. She had still around eleven dollars left to her name after shopping for new clothes and supplies. They, however, were excited to make a profit of fifty cents by the end of the week. Feeling immensely guilty she decided to keep one dollar out and hide the remainder of her money in a lose floor board under her bed, only to be used in the case of extreme emergency. She felt that, if she was going to be one of them, she should have to live like one of them. So she tucked it away and proudly didn't give it a second thought.

Today, however, was just not one of her days. Not only were the headlines completely beyond a point where 'improvin' the truth' would do any good, but she had a terrible headache. One of those ones that make you cringe because every sound seems twenty times louder. After selling ten papes, she finally decided to throw in the towel and ended up selling her remaining thirty back to the distributor. As she began walking out of the distribution center, she ran into Race on his way to do the exact same thing. They both laughed at each other knowingly and she waited for him to finish up before the two headed out to Tibby's. It was weird, her and Race could go all day without saying a word to one another, but could take one look and just know what the other was thinking.

After walking in and ordering a small lunch, Race turned to her a cracked a huge grin.

"What's so funny?" Myst said, instantly touching her face and hair, expecting him to be laughing at something there.

"Naw, nothing's funny. I'm just excited about tonight!"

Taking the hint, she quickly returned his grin with an overly zealous, overly fake smile. "Oh my Race! What ever is happening tonight to get you so excited!" Honestly, she really had no clue what was going on tonight. But one of the beauties of her and Race's relationship was that is was mostly based on their love of sarcasm, so he would expect no less from her.

"Well!" he proclaimed with an equally fake enthusiasm. "Tonight, we is throwin a party back at the lodgin house!"

"A party? What for?" Two weeks of being a newsie, and the leader's sister at that, yet she always seemed to be the last to know about ANYTHING going on. It was kind of annoying, but she understood why. Though she loved all the newsies like they were family, not many of them got her. She tended to be extremely outspoken and highly sarcastic so half the time, they never knew if she was being serious or just joking around. Not too mention, many of them were wary around her because she was a female. Most of the guys gave off this appearance of savvy ladies' men, but in reality, they were shy as hell when they came around females. Especially one living with them. They constantly were on guard around her, like she was trying to take a peak at their unmentionables. Not to mention, with the exception of Race, everyone treated her very much like Jack's little sister. It was almost annoying really.

"Uh, we always have one every few months to lighten everyone's mood." Race explained as though this should be completely obvious to her.

She sent him a phony glare and rolled her eyes. "So, in other words, you are excited to get yet another chance to weasel more money?"

He gave her a false gasp and placed his hand on his chest. "Myst! I would _never_ weasel money from my friends!" She gave him a knowing glance before the two broke into laughter. "I'll just weasel it out of the other guys," he said with a cheeky grin.

"Other guys?" Ok, now she really was confused again. "What others?"

"Oh, Harlem and Brooklyn are coming over." Now she was actually intrigued. She had only ever met one newsie not from Manhattan. He was the one who told her of her brother's alias when she was trying to find him.

"Oh really?" She replied with excitement. "Should be interesting."

"Yeah, so long as you don't run into Spot," Race said in an almost deadpanned manner.

Completely misunderstanding him she replied, "Spot, what spot? There is a spot?"

"Not 'what' spot, 'a' Spot. 'The' Spot to be exact. Spot Conlon from Brooklyn." Myst sent him a questioning gaze, not knowing if she should know who that was or not, but obviously not knowing. "He's the leader from Brooklyn," Race finally supplemented.

"Oook." Myst still wasn't quite sure if this should mean something to her or not. "So, what, I need to hide from him or something."

"Pfft, probably be your best bet."

"Well, if he is so terrible, then why did you guys invite him to the party?" She questioned.

"It ain't that he's terrible. I mean, he's kinda terrifyin but cool to hang with, if you're on his good side."

Myst gulped and threw her eyes wide in surprise. "So, what, he's like gonna try and kill me or somethin?"

Race merely chuckled at Myst's expression which only succeeded in making her slightly perturbed. She hated being picked on. "Naw, he ain't gonna try an kill ya. Maybe kiss ya. He's a major player."

Finally she understood where he was going with this and simply scoffed. "Oh please. Like I'd ever go for a guy like that."

Race only shrugged his shoulders. "Ya never know. I'm just sayin, I have yet to meet a girl who didn't fall for him." He gave her yet another cheeky grin which caused her to roll her eyes yet again.

"Care to make a bet on that one?"

*

After lunch Myst decided to take a stroll around the city. The sun was beaming down at her so hard that in a matter of minutes, her hat became a fan. Not really having much else to do with herself, she headed off to Central Park. She loved it here. It was like stepping into a whole new world.

She headed over to a tree as far away from the hustle and bustle of the city as she could get, a tree she knew well. Many afternoons she would come here to look out on the lake and just mull over her day while relaxing. She plopped down and tried to clear her head. It wasn't that she had a lot on her mind, but her headache was still definitely making itself known. A small groan escaped her mouth. She had been so excited about tonight's party, but with her headache not going anywhere any time soon, she almost wished the party wasn't going to happen.

Before she could even begin to contemplate anything further, she slowly drifted off to sleep. Maybe a quick nap would do her some good.

*

Myst woke up from her nap and glanced around her as if expecting someone to be there. After a few moments to taken her surroundings, she began to sit up.

"Owww.." Her whole body was raking with pain and her headache had definitely decided not to go on vacation. She looked around to notice the sun had already set, but judging from the little light still left in the sky, it must have only just.

Trying to ignore the muscle cramps screaming through her body, she warily began her walk back to the lodging house. "Never. Falling. Asleep. Under. A. Tree. Again!" she silently muttered to herself.

The walk to the lodging house usually was not that long, but tonight it seemed like it took her an eternity. When she finally arrived all she could do was groan and nearly through herself off a bridge. The party. She had completely forgotten. She seriously considered turning around and heading back to the tree. All over body pain had to be better then an even more splitting headache. However, the thought of walking all the way back out there seemed slightly less appealing. So she decided go in and head straight to bed. How loud could a bunch of drunk newsies really be?

Of course her question was answered the second she opened the door. Very Loud! Shaking her head she slowly walked in, slightly limping from the muscles in her legs beginning to lock up.

She was almost in a state of shock. She thought Manhattan had a lot of newsies, but the entire lodging house looked pack well passed capacity. They were everywhere! Many were gathered around in small groups playing cards, but some just seemed content to mingle. She nodded "hello's" those who acknowledged her and tried desperately not to blush from some of the "too friendly" eyes dancing around her. As quick as she could muster with her cramping body, she headed up the stairs into the main bunk room. It didn't take long for her to find Jack. He was seated at the largest group of guys playing poker in the center of the room. She recognized Race and Kid Blink at the make-shift table of crates, but no one else other than that. Assuming they were newsies from the other boroughs and not wanting to deal with introductions right now, she managed to catch Jack's eyes.

He quickly began trying to wave her over to the table but she mouth "Headache". She pointed over to her room door and grimaced. Thankfully he took the hint but still gave her a small frown.

She weaved her way through the overly crowded room and over to her door. Much to her dismay though, shutting it did absolutely nothing to muffle the sound volume. She moaned but then got an idea. She reached for her pillow and headed out the window and onto the fire escape.

Once she got on the roof, she sighed a breath of relief. Finally, silence. She wasn't tired at all since her nap so she figured she could just relax up here till the party died down some. She leaned her pillow up against the wall and made herself as comfortable as possible. After letting her mind fall completely empty as possible she began singing. Singing always seemed to calm her down for some reason and since it was too dark to write in her beloved journal out here, singing would have to do. She closed her eyes and sang a melody that brought back so many memories.

"You have a nice voice." Myst nearly had a heart attack as she sat up straight in shock. She quickly glanced around to she who was up here with her. Her eyes fell on a guy who looked about her age. It was dark out at the moment so she couldn't quite make out any distinguishing factors, aside from the fact that it was a guy. She glanced over at him, glad that the night was hiding her crimson face.

"Uh…um…How long have you been standing there?" Now that was a stupid question. She had only been up here about five minutes herself and she knew for a fact the roof was empty when she got up here. He merely smirked at her. At least she thought it was a smirk. He walked over to her and sat down beside her. At this her shock melted into annoyance. _Did I invite you to sit down next to me? I don't THINK so!_

Obviously noticing her mood change he smirked yet again, this time she was sure of it since he was so close. "Mind if I join ya?"

She merely rolled her eyes and decided not to press the issue, too in pain to really care. "Got a name?" She asked him, choosing to just ignore his question all together.

He hesitated for a moment before replying "Scott. You?"

_Scott? That's not a newsie name._ "Emma," she elected to reply. Since he wasn't giving her his newsie name, she thought it would be rude to give hers.

"Well, Emma, pleasure to meet you." He stuck his hand out. When she placed her hand in his, she half expected him to shake it, but he surprised her yet again by swiftly bringing it to his lips and placing a gentle kiss to her knuckles. She truly hoped he wasn't able to see her face burning red yet again.

As fast as it happened, it was over. He released her hand and moved his back into his pockets. But her hand was still tingling from where he had touched her. Quickly, she crossed her hands in her lap and tried to pretend like nothing was wrong.

"So Emm, what are you doin here?" He turned his head in her direction but still had the back of it up against the wall.

Completely miss understanding his question, she responded, "Oh, just avoiding the party. I am so not in the mood to deal with a bunch of loud drunk newsies." She rested her head back against the wall as well, but choose to continue looking straight ahead.

He snickered lightly which kind of aggravated her but she tried to ignore it. He didn't know her so he probably wouldn't appreciate her attitude like Race did. "No, I meant, what are ya doin here. Like at the lodging house at all," he explained.

Now she shifted her gaze to him and stared at him utterly confused. "Um. I live here," she stated as though it should have been perfectly obvious. He looked over at her with an equal confusion in his eyes.

"I didn't know Manhattan had any female newsies." Scott more replied as a fact than as a question.

Myst simply shrugged then opened her mouth to explain about her brother Jack but something stopped her. For the first time in the past two weeks, some one actually wasn't treating her as 'Jack's kid sister'. Now she loved being with her brother again, and Race was quickly becoming one of the best friends she had ever made. But it kind of felt nice to just get to be .. her. She glanced over to she Scott giving her a questioning look as if wondering what she was about to say a second ago so she replied, "Well. Now they do."

Scott seemed to accept her answer and a silence quickly fell between them. Not one of those eerie silences, but not quite a comfortable one. After a few moments passed she half turned to him. "So.. What brings you up here? Party not to your liking?" This time it was Myst who sent him a smirk.

He merely smiled then replied, "Naw, it's good. I just needed some fresh air. So how long ya been a newsie?"

"Only about two weeks," she said with a shrug.

"Two weeks? No wonder I haven't heard about you before." Myst glanced over at him calculating what he said. _Why would he have heard about me?_ "So, where did ya come from?" he continued.

Myst let out a long sigh. "You wouldn't believe it if I told you."

"Try me." Scott sat up and turned to sit right in front of her.

Not really knowing what to do she simply shook her head and stated. "Nah, it's a long story."

"I like long stories. Come on, humor me." He sent her a debonair smile that made her blush yet again.

She tilted her head to the side considering his requested. _Honestly. What harm could it really do. It's not like he'll run off and tell Jack._ Ignoring the guilt that had begun to swell up in her for not being fully honest with her brother, she looked him very seriously, straight in the eyes. "Fine. But you have to promise not to tell anyone!" She sent him one of her infamous or-I-will-kill-you looks.

He returned her look with a very solemn face and stuck his hand out. "Newsies' honor."

After a hand shake that lasted a little longer than it should have, she pulled her hand back into her lap ignoring the strange tingling sensation.

"Well," deciding to skip over the childhood she hated remembering, "I use to live with my grandmother in Pennsylvania. Ignoring all the gruesome details..she was pretty much horrible. I ran away when I was thirteen. I grew up in New York so I wanted to come back up here. But since I didn't have any money on me I had to get a job." Myst hesitated for a moment, not knowing whether she should continue or not. Scott just stared back at her patiently, though a certain look in his eyes almost silently begged her to continue. She took another deep breath and decided to press through for two very good reasons. She hoped that by getting it off her chest, even if it was to a complete stranger, it would help ease her guilt. Secondly, she thought that maybe his reaction, or hopefully lack there of would give her the courage to tell Jack.

"So," she began again, "I got a job working at a brothel. But not doing what you think!" she instantly added upon seeing his eyebrows disappear into his hairline. Almost immediately his gaze went to one with slight suspicion so she took this as a note to explain further. "I worked there as a waitress-of-sorts. Basically, I'd keep the men-in-waiting entertained. Wait! Again not what you're thinking." She quickly added yet again as his eyebrows began to creep upwards again. "Ugh. I just served drinks and occasionally got on stage to sing until the girls were .. free." She explained almost lamely. "Actually, I had a lot of fun there! I shared a free room with one other girl who did the same job as me. All our food was free, we didn't make any salary but we got to pocket any tips we made. Plus all the girls there were really very sweet." She sighed and looked down in her hands. "I actually miss them sometimes."

Myst looked back up at Scott, waiting for his reaction. At first he just stared back at her almost a little in shock, but slowly a grin spread over his face, as though he accepted her story and didn't think any less of her. She almost sighed in relief. In truth, her tale wasn't as horrid as her mind had forced her to believe. But part of her just instinctively knew that if she ever told Jack, his ears would turn completely off after the word 'brothel' left her lips. _Maybe one day_ her mind whispered carelessly.

"So, if ya liked it so much, why did ya come join the newsies?" he questioned.

Shrugging her shoulders she replied, "Needed a change of scenery. So what's your story?" She leaned over and poked him in the arm playfully.

He reached over and returned the poke before shrugging as well, "Not much to tell really. I mean, brothel, can't top that!"

Instantly she starting laughing, pleased that her and Race weren't the only sarcastic smart asses in the world. "Aw, come on, you gotta give me something," she urged on.

He leaned back, using his arms to support his weight while eyeing her down. She felt like he was looking at her, judging whether or not she was 'worthy' enough for his story. Before she could get aggravated by that he slowly began speaking. "Well. I my parents died when I was ten. I got sent to an orphanage. Ran away a year later and been a newsie ever since."

Myst sat there for a moment just blinking at the bluntness of his story before stating "Yup. So not as interesting as a brothel," in the most deadpan manner possible.

He looked over at her for a moment before laughing at her sarcasm. Instantly she began blushing like crazy at the sound of his laughter. In an effort to hide her reddening face she started laughing as well.

"You know. I like you." He stated as if announcing his favorite color. Immediately her face turned from red, to a straight crimson. Myst looked down at her hands to hide her face, praying that it was too dark for him to take notice. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

At once, her head popped up in complete shock. "W- wh-what? W-why?" Right away she became flustered all over and wished she had answered anyway _but_ how she did. _Maybe he didn't catch me stuttering_

Scott only smirked at her. _Oh yeah, he caught it._ "I don't know. Maybe I thought we could spend sometime together," he replied almost nonchalantly. _Yup. He definitely caught it._

It took every muscle in her body not to gulp. _Is he asking me out on a date?! Oh my God, Jack would kill me! Oh my God, Jack would kill him!_ "Um.. uh.. wh-when.. what time?" _Why in dear God am I shuttering like a crazy fool?!_

Scott's smirk didn't disappear an inch. In fact, it grew bigger. "How about tomorrow night?"

Myst took a moment to ponder his request, and to hopefully find a way to stop stuttering. She knew Jack would never let her go out on a date with this guy. _IF it even is a date._ Deep down, she actually was enjoying Jack being so over protective. She missed having him around. _Maybe Jack doesn't have to find out…_ "Sure. What time tomorrow night?" She flashed him a smile, secretly proud of her decision way more than she should have been.

Scott quickly returned the smile with a soft exhale. _Was he worried I was going to say no?_ she wondered. "Hmm.. might have to be a little late cause I have to come all the way from Brooklyn. How about around nine?"

"Works for me! Wanna meet in the park?" He nodded in an agreement. _Perfect! I can sneak out and Jack'll neeeever find out._ "Wait. You're from Brooklyn?!"

Again he nodded and shot Myst a look as though saying where-are-you-going-with-this. Myst simply shrugged her shoulders. "I heard your leader is a real creep," she stated in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

Scott began to bark out a laughter before replying, "Yeah, I know." He stood up and offered his hand to pull her up. She accepted, blushing once again at the tingling sensation running through her hand which she dutifully tried to hide by reaching down for her pillow with her free hand. "Come on, let's get you back inside." He started walking her over to the fire escape, never once letting go of her hand. She finally took notice of the dying party. _How long were we up here?_ He walked with her all the way down to her window. For the first time, the light pouring out of her room allowed her to actually get a better look a Scott. In an instant her breath became stuck in her throat. He was gorgeous! And the second her blue eyes locked into his swirling gray ones, she nearly melted and tried desperately to hide her blushing by looking away.

Scott smirked down at her before leaning in to kiss her ever so gently on the cheek. Then he silently whispered, "Good night, Emm." Myst stood there stun and quite possibly looking like a dead fish as Scott pulled away, with his insanely perfect smirk still in place. He gave her a very gentlemanly nod before turning and continuing the rest of the way down the fire escape.

By the time she finally gained enough strength to reply 'Good night', he was already long gone.

She climbed into her room, still a little more than slightly daze. Myst threw her pillow on the bed, turned off the light to her room, and collapsed on her bed. Her mind was reeling with tonight's events. You would think that after spending two years living in a brothel, Myst would have been used to guys advances. However, when she was there, most of the men would flash advances on any women they laid their eyes on, not really caring who she was or what she looked like. But Scott was flirting with her specifically. Her!

After pondering tonight over and over again, Myst finally drifted to sleep with a huge grin plastered on her face. She had a vague idea who would be making an appearance in her dreams.

**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews guys!!


	3. First Date

**Chapter 3 : First Date**

The next morning, Myst woke up with a jolt. _Was last night real?_ Slowly she began grinning madly. _Oh. My. God._ She threw on some clothes and rushed over to the bathroom to freshen up. Her mind was so wrapped around last night she didn't even notice all the guys casting her wary glances.

By the time she was finished, Jack was done as well. The two of them headed out to the distribution center. She truly hoped he wouldn't notice her strange behavior. On the other hand, you could tell Jack his shirt was on fire and he wouldn't even blink. He definitely was not a morning person.

After grabbing their papes they headed out to sell together. They had come up with a system to it. They would take a certain block, each keeping to their own diagonal corners so as not to crowd one another. That way they could just focus on their side of the street, yet still be close enough to chit-chat if things got slow. She loved spending days selling with Jack, heck she just enjoyed spending time with him period.

About two hours and twenty-five papes later, for Myst at least, since she figured Jack had already well sold over fifty, things started to slow down. Jack took this opportunity to head over to her side of the street.

"Yo Myst!" he called out to get her attention. She whipped around flashing him a huge grin. Actually her grin hadn't left her face once since she woke up really. "What's got ya all smiles this mornin?" he asked both in half mild amusement, half curiosity.

In an instant she tried a failed many times to suppress her grin slightly. "I don't know, ain't a girl allowed to be in a good mood for no reason?" she quipped back at him.

"Yeah, but with you, it usually means ya plannin somethin," he grinned down at her.

"Who? Me? Never." She somehow managed to pull off the most innocent smile she could muster. Jack grabbed an unsold newspaper from under his arm and used it to swat at her playfully. They two of them began chasing each other back and forth, getting quite a few glances from people walking about. After a few minutes of playing around, Jack finally threw his hands up in defeat.

"Alright. Alright. You win for now. Can't get too tired before tonight." He sent her a wink which she returned by raising her eyebrow.

"Oh. Throwing another party?" She tried amiably to hid yet another huge grin from plastering her face.

"Naw, I got a date with Sarah." He wiggled his eyebrow at her as though very proud at himself for that little fact. This time however, she didn't try and hide her eye roll. It wasn't that she didn't like Sarah. Okay. She didn't like Sarah. Myst had only met her two times and though she seemed nice enough, she just gave off the air of stuck-up superiority.

Ignoring the eye roll completely, Jack shrugged his shoulders and continued, "Ya know, it's too bad ya missed the party last night. I wanted ya to meet some one."

She tilted her head at him before responding, "Oh? Who?"

"Spot," he replied.

At this she rolled her eyes yet again. "Ugh. No thank you. Race told me about him. He sounds like a complete pig."

Jack instantly began chuckling and shook his head. "Yeah, he can be a little rough. But we leaders like to know about new newsies. Not like you would have been able to meet him though," Jack stated as he shrugged his shoulders. "He left pretty early. Probably had a girl waitin for him."

Myst sneered slightly, she hated guys like Spot. But what Jack said did explain one thing to her. She remembered Scott being shocked last night that he hadn't ever heard of her. Leaders wanting to know about new newsies cleared that up for her. _I wonder what he'd do if he found out I was Jack's sister?_ Myst mused over this for a moment before answering her own mental question. _He'd freak out and never talk to me again._ Guy code. Yet another thing she would never understand about the male species.

Choosing not to comment on Jack's description, she turned around and began trying to sell the rest of her papers. Within another two hours, both her and Jack had completely sold out of their morning edition. They met with Race and Mush to grab a bite to eat over at Tibby's. Myst spent the entire lunch listening to stories from the party last night. Apparently, Race managed to beat everyone out of some money, which he was immensely proud of. After lunch, Myst and Jack headed out to sell their afternoon edition before heading back to the lodging house.

*

Myst was pacing back and forth across her room. For some reason, minutes were passing by like hours. Her stomach was passed the point of doing flips and now was performing a very complicated gymnastics routine. She had changed into her second pair of clothes she had bought. Using the darkness outside which created a mirror out of her window, she began to re-inspect herself for the millionth time. She had braided her long honey blonde hair into a loose braid that felt to her mid back where it was tied off with a black velvet strip of cloth. She elected on a long sleeve light blue button up shirt with a plain white tee underneath. It was still a warm summer night so she rolled her sleeves up slightly, so they came to her mid-forearm and unbuttoned the top two buttons of the shirt. She wanted to wear her brown pants that she had bought, but settled on keeping her black pants on since they would match her hair tie better. She glanced across the room to where her hat was resting on top of her dresser. After dwelling on it for a moment, she decided against wearing it.

She sighed and paced a few more time before she just couldn't take the waiting any more. Ever so quietly she began the slowest descent of the fire escape humanly possible. If any of the guys heard her, or poked their head out the window and saw her, she would be in so much trouble with Jack.

A moan escaped her lips as she finally touch solid ground. She quickly glance in every direction including upwards to make sure no one had caught her. After coming to the conclusion that no one had, she began her walk to Central Park. She strolled along trying desperately to wish the butterflies in her stomach away before a thought hit her strong enough to accomplish this task. _Wait. Central Park is pretty huge. Where am I suppose to meet him?_ Quickly she began drilling into her memory, trying to remember if something had been said that she had simply forgotten.

She continued walking and dwelling on what all was said last night until she heard someone whistle for attention. She looked around trying to figure out where the sound had come from and notice no one nearby. Thoroughly confused, and slightly uneasy, she continued walking towards the now visible park. When suddenly a figured casually appeared from behind a large tree on the park's perimeter, and leaned across it just watching her walk forward. At first, she halted in her steps. After a few minutes though she was fighting to hide a huge grin from plastering her face. It was him.

As carelessly as she could possibly manage, she continued walking towards him. Following the longest ten steps in her life, she finally found herself within arms reach of Scott. He reached out for her hand and brought it towards his lips. Instantly her face became drenched in scarlet hues and as that all too familiar tingling worked it's way down her spine.

"Emm, you look stunnin," he sent her a slight smirk before leading her deeper into the tree line, again never letting go off her hand. They walked silently for a few minutes, just enjoying one another's company before she finally found the strength to speak.

"So do you," she stated then nearly blushed as he looked down at her with mild amusement twinkling in his eyes. Instantly she wished she had kept her mouth shut. _Smooth._

They continued on in silence before Scott led her over to a tree and pulled her down to sit beside him. "I missed ya today, Emm," he stated almost nonchalantly.

If she was scarlet before, her face now glowed an even brighter crimson. "You _missed_ me?" she glanced over at him in mild shock. She was not use to guys thinking about her.

Keeping his trademark smirk, he shrugged as though what he had said was a mere simple fact. "You're not like most girls."

Myst didn't know whether to accept what he had said as a compliment or an insult. She began to ponder over how she would reply when, for the first time, she took note of her surroundings. Immediately a small gasp slipped passed her lips. Scott turned to her and gave her a questioning look as a large smile began creeping up her face.

Choosing to avoid his statement for the moment she turned to him finally. "This tree. This place. I come here almost every afternoon to relax." Scott seemed to contemplate what she said for a few moments before breaking into a laugh.

"Really? I come here every time I come to visit Jacky-boy."

Deciding not to comment on the last part of his statement, she simply smiled over at him. "Guess great minds think alike."

A few minutes later they both looked to the left, hearing laughing and footsteps coming towards them. With a blink of an eye, Scott was up and standing in front of Myst as though to protect her from who ever was coming. Though she found the act very cute, inside she started panicking. She knew that laugh. Before he could even respond she dragged him behind the tree and placed her hand over his mouth. Jack was coming.

She glanced up at Scott expecting him to be extremely confused. However, amusement was plastering the parts of his face not covered by her hand. She signaled for him to be quiet and peered around the trunk of the tree. She saw Jack walking arm in arm with Sarah. _Ugh_. Thankfully though, they seemed to be heading off to the path surrounding the lake, and not in their immediate direction. She relaxed slightly but knew they had to get out of there, fast.

Myst grabbed down for Scott's hand and began to drag him quietly in the direction Jack had just come from. Fortunately he allowed himself to be drag around. Once they were out of the park and back on to the street she went to release his hand, but he only reclaimed hers. Blushing slightly they continued at a slower pace back towards the lodging house. After a few moments of silence he finally looked over at her.

"Mind tellin me what that was about?" he ask with amusement still dancing in his face.

"Jack. He'd give me hell if he saw us together," she shrugged, trying to make it not seem like it was a big deal and hoping he would buy it. After a few minutes of not pressing the issue, she took that as a sign that he accepted her story.

They arrived at the foot of her fire escape a few minutes later and she turned to find yet another smirk on his face. "So, my sneaky lil Emm, when can I see you again?"

Blushing madly at his use of the word 'my', she tried as nonchalantly as possible to reply, "How about same time next week?"

He paused as though considering her request, before looking down and tucking a strand of loose hair back behind her ear, letting his hand linger in place. "It would be my honor." Slowly he leaned down to kiss her gently on her cheek as he had last night.

After slowly creeping her way back up the fire escape, she snuck back into her room and collapsed on her bed with a contented sigh. Yet again she knew who would be occupying her dreams tonight.

**A/N : **Sorry this chapter was so short but the next one is going to be kinda long so I figured I'd separate the first date.


	4. Father Figure

**Chapter 4 : Father Figure**

_-Flashback/Dream-_

_For the past two months, Anthony had been coming to the brothel. Oddly though, he never slept with any of the women. He claimed to come for the drinks, but Emma knew better. There was a pub just down the street with drinks costing half what they charged. But every night, he'd come and leave right before closing time._

_Tonight, he stayed. He told her he loved her. Emma's mind was reeling as he led her upstairs. At the start, all she felt was pain. He comforted her, took his time. He was gentle. She gave herself to him, she loved him. They fell asleep embracing each other like lovers. He was to be her first, her only._

_The next morning, she awoke. She felt around for him, but her bed was empty. A folded note was resting on her nightstand. Smiling she reached for the note, her hand began to shake in anticipation for his romantic, heart-felt words. _

_When she opened it, the world around her stopped. A single tear escaped her eyes just as a one dollar bill fell out of the letter._

_-End Flashback/Dream-_

Myst awoke with a start. She had to glance around the room to make sure of her surroundings. She relaxed slightly as she caught her bearings. _Why him? Why now?_ He was the reason she left. In truth, she wanted to find her brother, but what he did to her, how he made her feel, it was why she left when she did. Trying to forget the horrible memory, she settled on trying to focus on the present, on Scott.

Over the next month, Myst and Scott were able to slip in four more dates, and tonight would be their fifth. A few nights ago, after weeks of nervous banter, he had finally kissed her. The electric jolts that shot through her body, almost made her legs completely fall out from underneath her. Myst had never met any man who had such an amazing effect on her.

As she walked along trying to sell the last of her morning papes, she simply could not stop smiling. Scott constantly occupied her every thought and today was no different. In all honesty she could really care less about selling papes on days she got to see him. She wasn't even hawking headlines, just merely walking through the streets letting the customers approach her. Surprisingly she still managed to get most of them sold somehow.

She looked down and counted four papes left and sighed. _Maybe I should just sell them back and give up for today._ She began debating with herself and hardly noticed when someone came up behind her. Next thing she knew her eyes were being shielded to hide her 'attacker'. Before she could even consider the option of anyone else, or maybe because he was the only thing on her mind all day, she playfully called out, "Scott, stop it."

"Scott?" Instantly she turned around to find not the gray eyes that haunt her dreams, but a set of chocolate brown ones looking at her in shock.

"Race! Wh-what are you doing here?" she quickly asked, praying he would ignore her previous statement.

"Saw you walking around in a daze. So who is Scott?" he asked with enjoyment covering his face.

"Scott? What are you talking about, I said stop," she claimed, hoping he would buy it. In truth she hated lying to him, or anyone for that matter. Race seemed to hesitate from a moment before a huge grin began to creep up his face.

"So lil Mysty's got a boyfriend! I knew there had to be a reason why ya've been so damn cheerful lately." Before he could go any further she snatched his hat off his head and began swatting him with it.

"Yeah, yeah. You tell anybody an I'll tell a certain someone _all_ about yesterday morning." Race had fallen hard for a very beautiful newsies from over in Harlem. He had quiet a huge crush on her but was always too shy to even speak whenever she came around. It was quite funny actually because he would begin to sputter and every thing he would say to her came out all backwards. Last time he saw her, he literally shouted at her "Hair. Brown. Pretty." All the surrounding newsies just started howling with laughter. Yesterday morning Mush had gone over to wake Race up. Poor Mush however only succeeded in becoming Race's victim. Race had started cuddling up to him, crying out her name out over and over again.

At the mention of Myst's threat Race instantly began to turn white. "You wouldn't!"

"Come on _Racey_, think who you are talking to," she smirked over at him, a little habit she picked up from Scott.

Race threw his hand up to the air in protest. "Ok. I promise! I promise!" Myst just laughed and placed her arm around his shoulder, successfully turning Race in the opposite direction.

"Come on, let's go get lunch."

*

"So, who is he?" Race asked for the tenth time since their food had arrived.

"He's just a newsie I met," she finally replied, seeing as how Race wasn't planning on letting up anytime soon.

"A newsies?! From where?"

"He's from Brooklyn. I met him at that party we hosted over a month ago. But it's nice, you know, cause he doesn't treat me like Jack's-little-sister. He treats me.. like me! Probably cause he doesn't know I'm Jack's sister though," she flashed him a cheeky grin.

Race suppressed a laughter, "He doesn't know?! Are ya ever plannin on tellin him?"

"One day, when the time is right. For now I'm just enjoying it. I haven't even told him my newsie name, he thinks I'm just Emma." A grin had become permanently attached to her face at this point since she finally got to talk about Scott to someone.

"What's his name?" Race asked, suspicion pouring from his face.

Myst shot him a confused glance before responding, "Um.. Scott..We've already covered that."

"No, what's his newsie name?"

"He said he doesn't have one. Like Jake, ya know." Myst shrugged her shoulders before stuffing more food in her mouth. Unfortunately she took in a little too much food but tried to play if off. _Hey at least this way I can't answer any more of his question._

"Well I don't trust him," Race stated very straightforwardly. At this though, Myst nearly choked on her food. After forcing her sandwich down she had to take a few sips of water to clear her throat.

"What?! How can you not trust him? Do you even know him?"

"Exactly why I don't trust him." Myst just rolled her eyes. Seriously, she was never going to understand man-mentality. Race caught sight of her eye roll and continued, "Seriously Myst, I know every newsie Spot's got. If I haven't heard of him, then he must be lying."

*

The rest of their lunch was eaten in utter silence. _Why would he lie to me? Maybe Race just hasn't met him yet. Maybe Scott is new. More importantly, he isn't like Anthony._ Before they separated to go sell afternoon editions, Race pulled her over.

"Something isn't right there Myst. Ya need to figure out the truth about him. Cause he ain't who he says he is." At that Race headed off leaving a very bewildered Myst.

She glanced down at the papes she had just bought and groaned. With so much on her mind, she just walked back into the distribution center. She wouldn't be able to sell a single pape today.

After leaving the distribution center, Myst started wandering the streets aimlessly. She nearly walked right in front of a trolley had Les not screamed her name to get her attention so that she would stop. Blushing madly from nearly becoming a victim of trolley-pedestrian hazing she walked over to where Les was selling.

"Thanks kid."

"No problem, Myst. Everything ok?"

"Yeah, just got a lot on my mind. Wait." Myst began to glance around before turning back to Les. "Selling alone today?"

He grinned up at her in the proudest manner fashionable before declaring, "Yes. I. Am. Jack an David finally said I was good enough."

Myst loved Les. He was always so happy. She leaned down as though to whisper a super top secret to him. "You know, I'll bet-"

"Well. Well. Well. Now what do we have here?" Before Myst could even finish her sentence she was being interrupted by someone. She quickly looked up ready to fight, but then her whole world came crashing down. All she could do was gap at a pair of brown eyes she knew all too well. The same brown eyes she saw every time she looked at Jack, only starker and colder.

"Les. Run. Go get Jack." Myst barked at the little newsboy. Without a single word, Les was off and running through the streets.

"What, no hug for your dear ol' daddy, Emma?" Myst flinched as he spoke at her. _How could I have been so stupid. How could I forget he was due to get out soon._

"Wh-what are you doing here?" her voice barely higher than a whisper. He took a step closer to her which she responded with a step back. After what he put her through, she vowed never to be helpless again. During the three years she spent at the brothel she had made sure of that. James, the bartender had been the greatest instructor. Sometimes the drunk men got a little too 'friendly', so he helped to insure that every female could protect herself. However all her training, all her practice, flew completely out with window. She literally just froze on the spot.

Next thing she knew, sharp pain was racking through her body. He had sprung forward while her mind had been desperately wandering back to James' teaching. Her father had her pinned to the ground yet again. This time, however, he was choking her. She vaguely recognized the severe throbbing screaming from the back of her head.

"You've been a very naughty little girl," he spat out at her before landing a fist into her right side with his free hand. "Your going to pay for what you put me through bitch!" He landed another punch into her side cutting off her already waning breathing. "Do you know how to made me look?!" he screamed at her landing a punch directly on her right cheek. Tears began slipping out her eyes as her vision started fading.

He screamed something else at her that she couldn't register as he grounded another punch, this time in her eye. As she began to black out, she heard people screaming. The pressure on her neck loosened, but it was too late, she was drifting off.

*

Les ran as fast as he could trying to find Jack. He noticed Mush and Blink lingering on a corner. Quickly explaining to them about Myst being in danger, the two boys took off in her direction. But Les kept running. He still needed to find Jack.

Mush and Blink rounded the corner to see Myst being beaten by an older man. Instantly they pulled him off of her. The man pulled himself upright and turned to them. "I will finish what I started," he proclaimed darkly. Before they could even react, he took off down a nearby alley. Mush turned to see Myst lying unconscious on the ground.

"Blink! Blink! Gimme a hand." Mush cradled Myst in his arms. When he lifted her head he felt blood dripping through her hair.

"Go get her inside. I'll look for Denton, maybe he will know what to do." Blink didn't even wait for Mush to respond before taking off in the direction of Bryan Denton's office a few blocks over.

Mush lifted Myst fully into his arms. He tried desperately to keep pressure on the back of her head, but then he wasn't able to hold her. Thankfully the lodging house was two streets over. He hurried as fast as he could and nearly kicked the door down to get inside.

"Kloppman! Kloppman! Help!" He cried out but never once slowed down his course. Not even bothering to check if the man was following him, he led Myst into her room and placed her on her bed as gently as possible. He looked around the room and found a spare rag laying on top of Myst's dresser. As quickly as he could possibly move, he crossed her room and was back at her side. Mush gently lifted her head and used the rag and his hand to keep pressure on the back of her skull, hoping that would slow the bleeding down some.

Not a second later Kloppman entered the room with a confused look on his face wondering what Mush had been shooting about. As soon as his eyes fell on Myst he rushed over to her.

"Mush. Go get some spare rags and a bowl of water," Kloppman ordered.

"I can't. Her head. If I let go," Mush trailed off as Kloppman's face registered what the boy was saying. The older man got up and headed over to the wash room to get the items he had previously requested. Once he was back at her side, Kloppman began attempting to wipe some of the blood and dirt off her face. Within a minute, bruises began forming on her face along side a split near her right eye. Kloppman managed to get most of her face cleaned up before footsteps could be heard running up the steps.

Jack pounced into the room a moment later with Race and Les right as his heels. As soon as they saw her, they all lost color in their faces. They couldn't believe this had happened to her. The next instant Jack's face turned bright red.

"Who did this to her?" He all but shouted.

"I don't know, some guy. Blink went off to find Denton," Mush quickly supplied before adding, "Jack, it's worst. Her head. I can't get it to stop."

Jack finally seemed to notice what Mush was saying as he rushed over to her. "Come on Myst, you gotta pull through this, kid," Jack whispered right into her ear. The room fell silent for a moment, every one just watching, praying for any sign of life from the small girl. Finally breaking the silence, Jack turned to Mush. "Ya saw this guy?"

"Yeah, older guy, never saw him before. He seemed to know her though," Mush nodded his head in Myst's direction. "He said he was gonna finish her."

Before Jack could even respond Blink ran into the room with Denton and a man Jack had never seen before. In a heartbeat he was on his feet ready to attack.

"Calm down Jack. He is a doctor." Denton interjected. The man glanced round the room with slight fear in his eyes, as though scared the newsies would assault him.

"Doctor, please," Kloppman stood out of the way and gestured the man over to Myst's bedside. As though taking note , the man hesitated briefly before heading over to examine the girl.

He pulled out a stethoscope and held it to her chest allowing a small grin to enter his face. "She is breathing, but only just." He rolled her gently on her side to examine her head wound when he felt a bulge on her side. "I need the room cleared. I have to check her side." The boys all hesitated but slowly left the room, with the exception of Jack.

"She's my sister. I stay," Jack barked at the doctor who merely nodded in acceptance.

"Jack?" Myst spoke ever so softly.

In an instance he was back at her side. "Shh..Myst. Don't talk. I'm here."

"No, Jack," she winced at the pain rocketing through her, "Jack, it was.." another jolt of pain swam through her before she could finish. "..it was dad," was the last thing out of her mouth as she fell asleep yet again.

*

Denton and the doctor had left an hour ago, leaving behind some pain pills for when she woke up again. He claimed that she would be fine. She was mostly black-and-blue on her neck and the right side of her face, but her right rib cage had been bruised pretty bad. He said their didn't appear to be any internal bleeding, but she couldn't endure another hit to her side for quite some time.

Jack had taken to pacing back and forth the main bunkroom. Waiting for her to wake up. Waiting for her to say it wasn't their father. _It couldn't have been him. I was told he had been locked up._ It didn't seem right to him. Then again nothing even seemed real to him. _You failed her. You couldn't even protect her.. AGAIN._ His mind was beating itself up. A few of the newsies had come back from selling their afternoon papes and heard the news. The bunk room was quiet, no one really knowing what to do or say to Jack. They had never seen him like this.

Race on the other hand, was mad, wanted blood. He couldn't take the people staring at him so he had hidden himself away on Myst's fire escape. He left the window open so he could watch over her. _How could someone do this to her. If I ever get my hand on him, I swear to God-_

"Jack?" a soft whisper from inside cut off his line of thought. He jumped through the window and to her side.

"Myst? Can you hear me? It's Race?"

"I know who you are… ya lazy bum," she replied weakly, giving him a small grin, before cringing at the pain.

"Glad to know, ya still a smart ass," he replied while gently brushing some hair off her face.

"Always." She flinched slightly as Race accidently touched her bruised temple.

"Sorry! I'm sorry! Can I get ya anything?" Race scrambled to apologize.

"I need you to do me a huge favor," she looked at him pleadingly.

"Anything," he was quick to reply.

She paused for a second trying to shove down her pain level before continuing on. "I need you to go to Brooklyn, tell Scott I can't make it tonight."

"Myst! Are ya kiddin me? Ya just got ya ass handed to ya and ya worried about a date? Besides I can't go to Brooklyn! They'd-"

"Race, please," she tried her best to pout but she only managed to achieve a grimace.

After a few moments of silence, Race finally replied, "Fine. Fine. But ya owe me for this." Before he could stand up she stopped him once again.

"Don't tell him what happened. He'll find out who I am. I need to be the one to tell him" She winced again from lifting her arm when she tried to stop him.

"So what do ya want me to tell him?"

"I don't know, just _improve the truth_ a little." She forced a small smirk as he stood up to head back out the window.

Once he was gone, Myst realized just how much pain her body was in. With all the strength she could muster, she called out for Jack.

He rushed in the room and over to her side. "Myst, ya awake. How do ya feel?"

"Like I got run over by a trolley." She replied and attempt to give yet another smirk, but this time, her face decided it just did not want to listen to her.

"Here, the doc left these for ya." Jack handed her two little white pills and a glass of water that had been resting on her night table. She graciously let them slide down her throat, hoping what ever they where would kick in fast. "So who did this to ya?"

"I told you, it was dad," she cringed a little as she tried to lift her head but failed miserably.

"Dad? But ain't he-"

"Locked up? Not anymore. I knew he was going to get out one day. I just forgot when," she finished lamely.

"Well he knows, where ya are now. We're gonna have to think of somethin."

"Like what?"

"I got a plan but, ya might not like it."

*

"I can't believe I'm doin this for her," Race mumbled as he walked along the streets. He had just made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and began crossing as he looked up and noticed the sun beginning to set. Brooklyn was not the best place to be at night, especially with the current state of things. Suddenly, things started looking up for him as he saw a familiar face walking nearby.

"Spot!" Race called out as he ran over to him. The boy turned to acknowledge him with a glare but Race continued, "Hey Spot, you got a newsie named Scott?"

Instantly a smirk filled the boys face before he responded, "Yeah, what's it to ya?"

"Can ya get him a message for me?" Race was in a hurry to get back to the lodging house. He wanted to watch over Myst and find out who did this to her.

"I ain't really the messenger type, so make it quick." Spot replied with a smirk never leaving his face.

"Ya boy Scott, he's gotta date with our girl Emma, but she ain't gonna be able to make it." Race supplied quickly, both out of urge to get back, and even greater urge not to annoy Spot Conlon.

"A Manhattener is standin up a Brooklynite?" Spot questioned with mild amusement.

"Yeah, Yeah. I _wish_ she would…. But she's just sick is all." Seeming to accept this answer, Spot nodded to Race. Before he even had a chance to respond further Race had said 'good-bye' and taken off back for the lodging house.

*

Spot remained in place on the Brooklyn Bridge for a moment, musing over what had just happened. After a few minutes he turned and started walking back to Brooklyn, shaking his head, "So, my sneaky lil Emm is sick, "he mumbled.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N:** Ok, so not as long as I thought it was going to be. But enjoy. Still need a girl for Race before the end of the week!!


	5. Brothers and Sisters

**Chapter 5 : Brothers and Sisters**

Myst woke up the next morning to utter pain. The pills she had taken the night before had obviously run out of her system completely. As she glance around the room she caught sight of a sleeping form in her corner. His head was covered between his arms, but she could still recognize him.

"Race? What are you doing on my floor?" As she spoke, she lifted her hand to her forehead in an attempt to force away the pounding that had taken residence there. Race slowly lifted his head to see who had spoken to him. He looked terrible. Like he barely got any rest. Standing slowly, he walked over and sat on the side of her bed.

"Hey. Look who's finally up," he spoke in a sleep deprived mutter. He tried rubbing his eyes, hoping to alert himself fully.

"What time is it?"

He pulled out a small beat up pocket watch and flipped it open. Then proceeded to tap it a few times on the palm of his hand, as though not trusting what the dial read. "Um.. Ten thirty. I think."

"Ten thirty! Why aren't you out selling?"

He glanced over at her as though the answer to her question should have been completely obvious. She merely nodded back at him, understanding.

"Jack left this mornin. Said he was headin to Brooklyn."

Instantly her breath caught in her throat. _Why was he going to Brooklyn? Did he find out about Scott? Man, I'm going to be in SO much trouble._ "Wh-why is he going there?" she asked, almost afraid to know the answer.

"I don't know. But whatever his reasons, it can't be good. He ain't thinkin too clearly, I think," he shrugged his shoulders which did little to hide the look of terror on his face.

"Can't be good? Race, it's just Brooklyn."

One of his eyebrows shot up as he turned to look back at her. "Man, Jack really doesn't tell ya much does he?" He said more as a statement then an actual question.

"Apparently Jack isn't the only one," she snidely responded back. Seriously. Why did no one ever tell her anything!

Race rolled his eyes before turning his whole body to face her square on. "A few weeks ago, some Manhattaner's were caught sellin on the Brooklyn Bridge. Spot don't take too good to people sellin in his turf. Some of his boys thrashed our guys pretty bad. Thing been kinda tense ever since then."

"Some of our guys? Who?!" She attempted to shoot out of her bed when finally the pain in her side made it's presence known. She settled for just propping herself on her left arm so she could still see Race.

"No one who stays here. Just some of the boys who live out on the street. Jack got furious. So whatever reasons he has for goin over there today, they can't be good."

Myst lowered herself back on to her pillow and took to staring at the ceiling. _Jack. What are you thinking?_

*

Spot had already finished selling his morning papes and was now resting on the docks. The summer heat was making the day almost unbearable. He had decided to fore go selling his afternoons for a much preferred swim in the river. After cooling off some, he climbed up to his tower of crates to relax and plan his evening.

He figured if he left after sunset, he could make it over to Manhattan in time to see Emma before she fell asleep. He didn't like that she had blew him off, but he understood why. Yesterday he had been on his way across the bridge to see her. As he was finishing selling the last of his papes, Race had approached him with a message for 'Scott'. The memory cause him to suppress a laughter. She really was like no other girl he met. Few others could master being sneaky and yet not managing to come off as sleazy, but she had it down to an art.

Just as he was about to let his mind become drowned in thoughts of her, someone shouted out, "Spot!" He shot up to see who had the nerve to bark at him like that when his eyes fell on a certain newsie. One he wasn't in the mood to deal with at the moment. He turned his body so his feet were dangling off his tower before glaring down at the boy who had interrupted him.

"What do ya want Jack-ey?" Though it was said in a nonchalant manner, every word dripped with a threat.

Jack merely rolled his eyes before pressing on, "I need ya help." He said it so straightforward that for a moment, Spot was almost in shock from his bluntness. However that quickly passed and he jumped the rest of the way down.

Spot got right up in Jack's face before biting out, "Oh yeah? And why would I help you? Ya having problems controllin ya damn newsies again?"

Fighting back all urges to punch him, Jack shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down at his feet. After a few moments trying to collect himself, he finally glanced back over to Spot. "I'm serious, Spot. Somethin's happened in Manhattan. Can I bring someone here till things die down."

Spot looked at Jack like he was crazy, but then something happened. Jack suddenly looked as if he was going to break down and beg at any moment. Spot fought down his retort and just settled on a nod before starting to walk away.

"Spot, wait. There's somethin else ya should know." Before he could explain further though, Spot just raise his hand to stop him.

"It doesn't matter, he has one week, one week then I'm sendin him back to ya." And with that, he was gone.

Jack quickly turned to head back home. _This will be for the best. Spot can watch over her till I figure out what to do with dad._

Spot headed back up his tower to lay down and watch some clouds pass over head. Jack was coming back tomorrow and he had to warn his newsies of their new addition. _Guess I don't get to make a trip to Manhattan tonight._ He sighed before reaching for his sling shot. It was going to be a long night.

*

It was dark out by the time Jack finally got back to the lodging house. He had stopped in Tibby's to grab three sandwiches to-go, since he knew Race wouldn't have left her side all day. Sure enough, Race and Myst were sitting on her bed playing a game of poker. When Myst finally saw him standing in the door way she shot him a death glare.

"Are you an idiot! I've been worried sick about you all day!"

"I brought food," he lamely proclaimed, holding the sandwiches up for them to see.

"Oh… Well… All is forgiven. Now gimme!! Race wouldn't even let me go across the street," she gave Race a playful frown before gladly accepting the roast beef sandwich Jack held out to her.

Jack nodded in thanks over at Race before joining them on the bed. The room went silent for a few moments while each newsie enjoyed their food. Finally Race spoke up, "So Jack, why did ya go out to Brooklyn?"

Jack glanced over at Myst before answering, "Had to go see Spot about a favor. Myst, I'm sendin ya over there for a little while, just till we can get this thing settled with dad."

"What?!" both her and Race screamed out, then proceeded to attack Jack with questions. All he could make out was "Why?" "Are ya nutz?" "Can't I just stay here?" "Ya out of ya mind, Cowboy." Before he raised his hand to silence the both of them.

"Myst, please. Just do this for me. It won't be for long, I promise."

She went to interject him but Race beat her to it. "Brooklyn? Ya couldn't have asked Harlem?"

"Brooklyn is tough, they can protect her."

"But what about Slide and Arrow?" Myst assumed those were the two newsies from a few weeks back who got caught selling in Brooklyn. But any ability to respond left her. She heard Jack and Race continue arguing by she wasn't capable of processing what was being said. Half of her was screaming out, 'No! I don't want to go!' but the other half was happy, 'I get to see Scott everyday!' As her mind began playing tug of war with itself, she heard her door slam shut. She finally focused on the fact that Race had apparently stormed out. Jack was looking at the door as well, but he slowly turned back over to her.

"Myst, I know this will be hard on ya. But I really need ya to listen to me on this. Trust me."

"How long?"

"What?"

"How long do I have to stay, Jack?"

"Spot said he'd keep ya for a week."

Instantly her mind began to cringe. Spot. She had never met him, but after what she was told of him, she never wanted to meet him. He reminded her too much of Anthony. A man she would like nothing to do with. Jack wished her good-night before heading out to deal with Race. So many thoughts were fighting around in her brain, she just laid back. Maybe some sleep would help clear things up.

*

The next morning, Jack woke her up early. As he left the room, she registered the other newsies up and running around preparing for another day of selling. She never thought she would miss it, but after two days off, she longed to be walking the streets, hawking the headlines.

She slowly lifted herself off the bed, her body was still in a lot of pain. She pulled the casing off her pillow, figuring it would make a good sack for her belongings. As she began packing up what little clothing she owned she heard a knock coming from her door way. She turned to see Race standing there looking as though someone had just told him Santa wasn't real.

"Mind if I come in?" Myst rolled her eyes playfully but went back to packing. Taking that as a yes, Race slowly walked into her room and sat at the foot of her bed. "I still don't want ya to go," he stated.

"I know. I don't either. But I trust Jack," she gave up on trying to drag out her packing and just shoved her spare shirt in the makeshift bag before joining him on the bed.

"If they give ya any trouble, if Spot tries to mess with ya, just come find me."

"Are you coming over with Jack and I?"

"Nah, I have to get back to sellin," she nodded in understanding. She looked up to see Jack standing in her door way.

"Ya almost ready to go?" he asked. She glanced around her room to make sure she hadn't forgotten anything when she eyed a brown leather journal on top of her nightstand. She walked over to it and brought it to the rest of her items.

"Yup, I'm all packed up." Jack paced into her room and grabbed her bag. She turned to Race and gave him the tightest hug she could manage without hurting her side.

"I'll be back in a week," she told him and flashed him a smirk. "Try not to have too much fun with out me!" With that, her and Jack started the long trek across the bridge.

*

As Jack and Myst stepped off the bridge he was on rule number 147 for her to memorize. She glanced up and cradled her eyes from the glare of the sun. It had to be close to early noon and the summer heat was starting to creep up.

"And another thing, Brooklyn is hard. So keep ya head down and don't be a smart ass. They won't take to ya attitude very well."

Myst rolled her eyes and responded, "Yes Jack," which seemed to be the only two words she had been able to get out all day. She knew he was just trying to look out for her, but really, he wasn't helping. Actually, all he was succeeding in accomplishing was increasing her nerves. She knew things were going to be different in Brooklyn, but she was beginning on wonder why Jack was bringing her here. Maybe Race was right. She should have just gone to Harlem. At least Harlem had some female newsies. Myst really missed just being able to hang out with girl friends, they were so less complicated then boys. Not only that, but it would give her a chance to spend time with Snap.

Snap was the female newsies of Race's dreams. After meeting her a few times, Myst was in awe. Snap was very beautiful with long wavy brown hair. She was a little shorter then Myst but she never let her size depict anything. She was quick to bite down any one who crossed her. Myst was in complete admiration of the small girl, especially how she could hold so much control over guys twice her size. It was a technique Myst intended on summoning while in Brooklyn.

She was so lost in her thoughts, she tripped when the ground beneath her changed from stone to wood. She glanced around, hoping that no one had noticed her clumsy moment. As she looked around she found that her and Jack were crossing a small bridge way over to a pier filled with newsies. Many were jumping into the water in nothing more than skivvies. She instantly began blushing and quickly noticed one thing. Brooklyn newsies were huge. They dwarfed any Manhattan newsies two-fold, and every one who caught sight of her and Jack immediately began shooting them glares. She started trying to advert her gaze in hopes that her stomach would stop doing flips, and then it happened. She saw him.

Scott was sitting over on a stack of crates with his back to her. Without even realizing what she was doing. Without even remembering Jack was there, she took off in his direction. Jack halted for a moment, wondering why she had run off ahead of him. After a quick moment of confusion, he took off in her direction to figure out what had stirred her.

"Scott?" she called out to him. Spot turned to find out who had called him by that name. His breath caught in his throat as he looked down at the girl who haunted his dreams. Emma stood before him dressed in the white shirt and black pants he had originally met her in. She had her hair braided to the side in an attempt to hide bruises on the right side of her face, but he noticed them immediately.

Instantly he jumped from the crates and hurried over to her side. He gently brushed the hair from her face to inspected the contusions better. "Emm, what happened. Who did this to ya?"

She tilted her head down, to embarrassed to recount the details of her event. Before she could find a way to form the words, Jack broke the uncomfortable silence.

"Mind explainin how you know my sister?" His question was filed with as much threat as complete confusion.

Spot glanced over at Jack before turning back to Myst. He quickly dropped his hand from her cheek as though touching her had set his hand on fire.

"Sister?!"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N : **Thank you guys for all the reviews!! Sorry if this one was a little short as well. I am just scared to present too much story in one chapter. I dont want to deminish the characters or story by stuffing too much in each chapter.

And a special shout out to Huffle, hope you like the way I introduced Snap!!


	6. Truth

**Chapter 6 : The Truth**

The trio just stood there staring at one another for a few minutes. Not a word was spoken as they all considered just what it was that was going on. Myst's mind was running at max speed trying to figure out if Scott was angry at her for lying, as well as debating how much Jack was going to kill her when he found out the truth. She finally got the courage to speak, but as she opened her mouth, the words refused to form.

It was Jack who spoke next, "Spot, I want an answer." Myst began to look around to figure out where this ever illusive 'Spot' was, figuring he had walked up behind her. When no one was nearby she turned back to Jack, thinking he was seeing shadows. His eyes, however, were drilling holes into Scott. Scott on the other hand was merely looking back at Jack, a statue of calm. After looking back and forth between the two men, she began putting it together.

"Spot? This can't be.. he-he said his name.." No matter how she looked at it, no matter how hard she tried, she just could wrap her mind around it. _It can't be true. He said he was Scott. He can't be Spot!_ Refusing to accept it, and not really in the position to do anything further, she walked away. She could feel two pairs of eyes bearing into her back but she couldn't stop. She headed over to a small crate and just plopped down. _Maybe if I close my eyes and wish really really hard….I STILL KISSED SPOT CONLON!_ Every story she had ever been told of him, all came rushing into her mind. He was a pig. He was like Anthony. _He was Scott._

Myst hardly noticed Jack walking over to her, but she definitely registered him screaming at her.

"Myst!" he cried out trying to get her to focus. She blinked and then looked over at him. In the corner of her eye she could see that 'Spot' hadn't moved an inch, he didn't even turn to face them. Jack, however, was looking at her with fire in his eyes. He wanted answers and he wanted them now.

Thinking as fast as her mind would allow, Myst quickly responded, "Scot- Spot is the newsie who directed me to you. He's the one who told me of your alias. I-I just didn't know HE was Spot Conlon." That was a lie. It was an obvious lie, but it was also a believable lie, she hoped. Using her peripheral vision, she saw Spot turn his head in her direction and give her a weak smile. Not wanting Jack to notice her glancing at him, she turned all her attention back to Jack and silently began wishing away the butterflies in her stomach from his smile. _That isn't Scott! You can't feel that way for him!_ However, her stomach didn't listen to her, as usual.

Jack, on the other hand, seemed to be considering her response. He nodded at her and gave a gentle smile before standing and walking over to Spot. She watched as Jack ushered him further away so they could talk out of her ear shot. She tried ignoring the feelings of dread from not knowing what would be said, and anger from always being coddled from everything. Instantly she turned her focus to the water before her. Something about staring out into it, the way it reflected images as interesting patterns, always helped to calm her down. _Men!_

*

After pulling Spot out of listening range, Jack slowly turned to face the boy. Spot wasn't scared of anyone, nor would Jack ever be able to successfully intimidate him. But he did have a look in his eyes of pure rage, a look that Spot instantly respected. Not many people had the guts to dare challenge him.

"Look. I don't know what's goin on, but if I find out she's lyin.. if ya so much as touch her.. I will kill ya."

"Takin to death threats now, Cowboy?" Spot spat back at him, but Jack could detect a slight amusement in his eyes.

"Spot, I'm serious. That's my lil sister," he bit out. Jack wasn't in the mood to deal with Spot's behavior.

Spot stared directly at Jack for a few moments as though considering what was being said to him. Finally he gave a sharp nod before asking, "What happened to her?" So many snide comments were running through Spot's mind. He was furious that Jack had allowed this to happen to Emma, or Myst as Jack had called her. But regardless, he bit back his tongue, he figured now was not the time.

Jack looked down at his feet, something Spot had noted he did whenever he was truly upset or embarrassed. _He should be! If I had known he couldn't protect her.._ Finally Jack replied, "My father just got outta prison, he's after her now. He's the one who.." did that to her. He didn't speak the last part, but Spot knew the words were hanging there.

"So what are ya plannin on doin about it?"Spot spoke as harsh as he could manage.

"Honestly, I don't know. Soak him if need be." Jack stated and Spot could hear the desperation in his voice.

"How long do you need?" Spot wanted that man's blood. But for now, he was testing Jack.

"I thought ya said a week?" Jack looked over at him thoroughly confused.

"Yeah well ya never said it was ya sister."

"I tried.." Jack began, but was yet again cut off by Spot simply walking away.

Spot headed over to Myst's location and tapped her a bit roughly on the shoulder to get her attention. She went to quickly turn around to see who was tapping her, but pain began galloping though her body. As she reached for her side, Spot shot a dark glare over in Jack's direction. He reached down and yanked her up to a standing position as gently as he could, but with all the anger running in him, it ended up being a very far left field from gentle. Still, Myst didn't say a word, or make any sign that he had hurt her, however her eyes gave her away.

Spot barked at Jack over his shoulder, "Get her bag." With that he started guiding her forward to a tall brick building, never once letting go of her arm. As they walked ahead, Spot used this opportunity to whisper, "We WILL talk later." He said the words directly into her ear, and had every word not been completely soaked in menace, she would have melted right there on the boardwalk.

He directed her in the door and up a set of stairs. Had she had time to look around she would have noticed many similarities downstairs to that of the Manhattan Lodging House. However once they got up stairs, nothing was the same. She exited the stairs into a long hallway. To her left were two plain closed doors at either end of the corridor. In front of her was what appeared to be the wash room, and to her right, a bunk room nearly double the size of Manhattan's.

Spot lead her over to the far door on the left which opened to a private room. _Thank God_ she thought. The room was about the same as her one back in Manhattan. It held only one bed, a single nightstand, and a simple short two drawer dresser. On top of the dresser was a bowl for washing and small warped mirror hung behind it. She did note, however, that there was a second door to her room off to the left of the entry which she figured to be a closet. Spot finally released her arm and she glided over to one of the two windows in the room and gazed out on the perfect water view. She felt a very soft tap on her shoulders and turned to she Jack staring down at her.

He leaned in to give her a gentle hug before pulling back and looking directly at her, "Ya'll be fine here. Just remember what I told ya." He kissed her forehead before leaving to head back to Manhattan. After she watched the two boy walk out of her new room, she turned back to continue enjoying her view.

*

Once Jack and Spot had exited the lodging house, Jack once again turned to face Spot. "I know there is a lot of stuff goin on between Brooklyn and Manhattan, but I'm trustin ya, Spot." Jack spit into his hand and held it out for Spot to shake. Spot hesitated for a moment but finally returned the gesture. As he watched Jack walk away he let a heavy sigh escape his lips. _She HAD to be his sister_.

He walked back inside and directly up the stairs then turned into her room. He paused for a moment to take in the sight of her just standing there. _Stop! You can think of her like that. Not now, not ever_. Forcing her from his mind, he slammed the door behind him.

Myst nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard the bang from behind her. She turned to find Spot standing alone with her in the room with a look on his face. Tried as she did, she couldn't read his expression and the dead stillness between them was choking her alive.

Finally she decided to break the silence. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." As she said the words she looked down at her feet and bit her lip.

_Just like Jack, _his mind screamed out to him. He ran his hand through his hair, begging his brain to be quiet. "Ya should of said somethin."

At his words, Myst's head shot up. Without even thinking about what words were going to spill from her mouth, she spit out, "Well I'm not the only one in here keeping secrets, _Spot Conlon._"

He looked over at her a bit in shock. He wasn't use to people speaking to him in that manner. Spot narrowed his eyes to her before barking out, "I never lied to ya!"

"Oh, no, you're right. Coming up with a false name. Creating a fake identity. Playing like you liked me! But no, you never lied." Her voice grew steadily as she spoke to him. She glared over in his direction before rolling her eyes and turning his back to him.

Spot's fury was slowly growing as he crossed the room towards her. He grabbed her arm and turned her to face him. "Ya accusin me of lyin? How about ya neglectin to tell me ya Jack's kid sister! Ain't that somethin I deserve to know?"

"And what then. Would you have still hung around if I told you?"

"'Course not!" he all but screamed out at her. As her eyes grew wide he instantly knew he shouldn't have said what he did. "I-I mean. I don't know. What does it matter if I was only 'playin like I liked ya'?" he sneered over at her.

Before Myst could even come up with any response to him, he stormed out of the room. She felt like she had been hit by a ton of bricks. With no strength left in her, she collapsed on the bed and began praying for everything to be a dream.

Spot walked down the hall to the adjacent closed door. He quickly glanced around his bedroom, a mirror image of the one he lent Myst. After pacing the room a few times, he threw his fist into the wall with a grunt. It didn't help his mood any though. The sad fact was that he was use to getting any girl he wanted, but now the one he wanted, he couldn't have. To make matters worst she was living with him, one room over to be exact. He laid down on his bed and began staring at a small crack in his ceiling, his mind trying to process everything that had just happened.

*

Myst hadn't moved in quite some time. She had lain on her bed as the sun slowly filled her room with bright oranges and reds till finally darkness began to enfold her. She sighed and sat up to look for a source of light when her eyes fell on a fire escape outside her window. Figuring some fresh air might do her some good, she headed outside. After climbing her way up to the roof, she looked around in shock. The view was amazing. She noted a small bench near the back wall and quickly headed over to sit down. From her position, she had a perfect panorama of the Brooklyn Bridge with the water flowing beneath.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, inhaling as much of her surroundings as she could. When she finally opened her eyes, she saw something move in the corner of her vision. Instantly she turned to see Spot standing there.

"Mind tellin me what ya doin on my bench?" However, unlike their previous conversation, this time she couldn't sense as much anger in his tone.

"Look, you want to argue, fine. But not here, not now." She was still mad. She would probably be mad for a while. But the view was just to beautiful to be ruined, especially by him.

As though he accepted her terms, Spot merely nodded before taking seat at the other end of the bench. They both sat quietly for a few minutes, just enjoying the landscape, before Spot finally spoke up again, "So. Myst. Where's that name come from?"

She sent a look over in his direction, trying to figure out what angle he was exactly coming from. Spot simply looked back over at her, his face completely unreadable again. Sighing she ended up with the conclusion that as long as they were being civil, she would go along with it. "It's short for mysterious, since I was Jack's 'mysterious' sister."

Spot's face responded with a smirk that she knew too well. "That's an understatement." As much as Myst wanted to snap back some retort at him, she kept her mouth shut and settled on sending him a glare.

"So where did Spot come from? Get named after a dog?" She couldn't help it. She truly felt that if she didn't do or say something sardonic every once in a while, her body would actually receive physical pain. At least that is the excuse she told herself. Spot, however, chuckled at her comment.

"Nah, I got the name cause I never miss my spot." He reached in his back pocket and produced a sling shot that Myst vaguely remembered him having on one of their dates. She immediately began to steer her thought process away from the direction it was beginning to go.

"So. What did you and Jack talk about earlier."

"Not much. He told me about what happened to ya, dimly."

Myst merely nodded back at him but didn't feel up to explaining the details at the moment. With nothing more that she wanted to say, she stood up to head back to her room. Half way to her fire escape she turned to face Spot. "Thanks. For everything." Figuring nothing else could be said between them that wouldn't lead to a fight, she traveled the rest of the way down to her room.

Spot sat still for a few moments after Myst had left. They had only exchanged a few word among themselves. But with her, only a few words needed to be said. He could feel himself being drawn into her, no matter how hard he fought it. _I'll find a way to fight it. There has to be a way._

**A/N : **SECRETS OUT! Well some of them anyways. Still a few more twists in there.

Big thank you to everyone would has posted reviews!

Spotted Dancer – Huffle Bibin – MushSpotgoil – cailin baire conlon – Eavis…. You guys all rock!


	7. Brooklyn

**Chapter 7 : Brooklyn Life**

The next morning Myst woke up abruptly. It took her a few moments to comprehend where she was. After realizing that yesterday hadn't been a dream as she so hoped, she sighed and got out of bed. Judging from the intense quiet coming from the bunkroom across the hall, she guessed that she had got up prior to any of the other guys. _Perfect, I can get in the wash room before them_. As she glanced around, she noticed her bag of clothes still unpacked. She groaned and headed over to get it done as fast as possible. After stuffing her clothes away in the drawers and grabbing her toothbrush and hair brush, she started to head out of her room when she remembered her closet. Feeling a bit nosy, she decided to peak inside. Maybe their would be hangers available so she could suspend her clothes properly. As she opened the door, she nearly fainted.

There was, in fact, no hangers. Actually, it wasn't even a closet. More to the point, she found herself staring at a shirtless Spot Conlon who was looking back at her with equal confusion. After staring a little longer than she would have liked, she quickly shut the door and leaned her back against it. _What the-_ Her closet was a small bathroom which she apparently shared with Spot. Myst rapidly tried desperately to remember if someone had by chance mentioned that too her yesterday. However, before she could figure that fact out, she felt Spot knock on the door she leaned against. Myst began to panic. _Oh my God. What should I do? Should I open it? He knows I'm here… Oh God.._

Not really having any other options, she slowly turned to crack open the door slightly. Not wanting to catch another peek, she squeezed her eyes shut before responding, "I-I'm sorry. I don't know. I thought it was a closet." She heard him chuckle softly, which only managed to turn her embarrassment into anger. "You could have told me, you know!" she snapped at him.

Spot nonchalantly replied, "I thought I did. Anyway, it's free now."

Myst stayed in place. She waited a full minute after she heard his door shut to even enter the bathroom. By now, the voices of other newsies could be heard rummaging about across the hall. Figuring the coast was finally clear, she headed into the small washroom and glanced around. There was a plain toilet sitting next to a small bath on the wall adjacent to the hallway. Across from that was a small sink with a mirror hanging behind it. She noticed a shelf under the mirror cluttered with what she assumed were Spot's bathroom supplies. She noted he had clear a section off for her, and despite her best attempts, she couldn't stop the small smile from appearing on her face. Directly across from her door, was a door which implicitly lead to Spot's room. She quickly cross the wash room to lock the door when dread filled her. There was no lock.

She figured that since he had just finished, she would be safe. But that didn't stop her from rushing through her morning activities. Myst was in the middle of brushing her teeth when Spot's door suddenly flew open.

"Myst!" he barked over at her which caused her to nearly choked on her entire tooth brush. "Hurry up, we need to get to the distribution center." Spot proceeded to lean against the door frame. He was purposely trying to make her uncomfortable. It was working. Tooth brush still in mouth, she walked over to where he stood. Before he could even realize what she was going to do, she pushed him hard in the chest so he would move. Once he took a step back she slammed the door in his face.

Thankfully, he didn't try coming back in the bathroom, so she was able to finishing brushing her teeth in peace. Once she was done, she grabbed her hat from her room then headed back through the bathroom and into his room. He was waiting almost patiently on his bed and gave her a small look of humor before leading the way.

They walked in silence the entire way to the distribution center, which worked out well for Myst since she could focus more on how to get there. Then, his quite nature began to annoy her. She spent the entire day walking around Brooklyn selling with him, but Spot never said two words to her. The most he would do is stare at her with an extremely critical eye as she hawked headline. She even tried to initiate a few conversations, but Spot would never take the bait. After sitting through the most boring lunch of her life, she followed him out for the afternoon edition. Fifteen papes in, she just couldn't take it anymore.

"Okay. What the hell is with you?" she all but screamed out at him. Spot instantly stopped in his tracks and shot her a very angry, yet very confused look.

"What are ya talkin about?"

"Oh don't play dumb with me, Conlon. You haven't said a single word to me all day! Do you know how annoying that is?"

Humor began dancing in his eyes as he stated, "That's not true. I talked to ya this mornin."

"Yeah, but not since then." He crossed his hands over his his cane to prop himself up. He was laughing at her with eyes, but continued to stay silent. Myst was already well passed her snapping point, so she did the only thing that seemed to make sense. She swiped his cane out from under him. Unfortunately, he didn't fall over as was her intent, but finally his mental hilarity was replaced by utter shock. Feeling slightly satisfied, she began twirling his cane around in her fingers. "What's this stupid thing for anyway," she asked while glancing towards with spiraling black and gold stick.

Before she could even register what was happening, he quickly snatched it away from her and tucked into his belt loop, "Ya don't wanna find out, kid," he snipped at her.

Myst glared over at him as she spat out, "Not like you'd tell me anyways. Then you might actually have to speak to me!" _Scott would have told me.. Don't go there!_

"Why should I speak to ya. So I can hear more lies?"

"Oh, Let it Go! I'm not the only one with a feigning issue." People in the streets started going out of their way to avoid the two as their voices slowly grew louder and louder.

"I had my reasons," he shot out.

"And I didn't?! Man, if I had known you'd be this egotistical, I never would have-"

"Never would have what? Kissed me?"

"I never would have anything!" she screamed back at him. When he didn't reply, Myst walked off. She could see the lodging house a few hundred feet away. As she began walking over to it, her mind was reeling. _'Never would have anything'? What the heck did that even mean?Ugh.. I was stupid for coming here. Jack was stupid for bringing me here! I should have known better then to think I could stay here with HIM!_

When she got into her room, she quickly grabbed her journal and a fountain pen. After throwing her self on her bed, she quickly began to write out all the emotions she was feeling. Dear Journal- I hate him!

An hour later she was still writing strong. Her rant was never ending. The only thing slowly her down was the dimming light in her room and a hand cramp. Giving up, and sensing a slight emotional release, she hid her book back under the mattress. She walked over to the window and cracked it for a little fresh air. The cool September air coiled around her and she welcomed every drop of it. Myst loved this time of year, not too hot, not too cold. She reached over to her bed and grabbed the light blanket before heading up to the roof, her new favorite place.

The breath caught in her throat and all anger quickly left her body as she stared out at the most beautiful sunset she had ever seen. The bridge was ablaze with brilliant oranges and crimsons, while the sky was drenched in a unique blending of ginger and lavender. She covered herself with the blanket and watched the entire glorious show. An interesting thing happened in the city once the sun set. It becomes peaceful, relaxed in it's starry shroud. Myst laid out on the bench, she was never taught anything in depth about the constellations. So instead she started playing connect-the-stars and trying to see what she could come up with.

After tracing star lines with her finger for more than thirty minutes, someone finally asked out, "What are ya doing?" The interruption in her silence stunned her so bad, she ended up rolling completely off the bench.

"Ow!…ow ow ow." Pain course through her side, sending unpleasant stars to her eyes. She felt someone gently reach down and lift her to a standing position.

"Emm, ya ok?"

"Scott?" As her vision began to clear, Spot's form began to take shape. "Um. I mean Spot.." She looked down at her feet to hide the flush running to her face.

He guided her back down to the bench before murmuring, "Ya can call me Scott if ya want, just not in front of no one else."

"But, why? It isn't your name?" She looked over at him slightly confused and still trying desperately to make the twinge in her side go away.

"Actually, it is my name. My real name. Told ya I never lied." He shot her a smirk as she rolled her eyes. "So what happened to ya side?"

"You made me fall off the bench, that's what happened." She replied in a deadpan expression.

"Nah, I saw ya grab at ya side yesterday on the pier too."

"How astute of you!" She said, with as much sarcasm as she could possibly pull off.

"Hey now, no fighin up here. Your words, remember," as he spoke, she could see the good humor in his eyes. And couldn't help giving him a fake glare.

"Using my words against me now I see. Fine, fine. Yes. My side is injured."

"How?" She shot a look that told him the answer should be completely obvious, so he rhetorically asked, "Ya father?"

She simply nodded even though she didn't need to. "He bruised my rib cage pretty good. The doctor said it will take some time to heal."

Spot went quiet, but Myst saw a look in his eyes, one she had never seen before. Wrath. He had never looked like that before and it frightened her, even if she knew it wasn't directed at her. The two sat silently for over an hour. Finally feeling slumber creep up on her, they each retreated back to their rooms. As she started to drift off to sleep, thoughts filled her mind. _Being in Brooklyn is like riding an emotional wave! Spot is so… bipolar!_

*

Over the next few days, Myst and Spot figured out a simple way to deal with one another. During the day, they were completely polite to one another. Towards mid-afternoon when exhaustion began it's first stages of setting in, they would start to bicker. It would never be about anything serious. But put two stubborn, outspoken, tired people in close proximity of one another, and it's basically like poking a hungry bear with a stick and waiting to see if it gets mad. Then after the sun had fully set, they would go on to the roof top and pretend the argument never happened.

Myst quickly noticed a huge difference in the general atmosphere of Brooklyn. Unlike Manhattan, Brooklyn seemed colder. Everything was dark, foreboding, harsh. She missed the liveliness of Manhattan. She missed the newsies. She missed Jack and Race.

The Brooklyn newsies were nowhere near accepting of her. In fact, most of them tended to steer completely clear of her as though she had the plague. The only one who would even speak to her, aside from Spot, was one named Spike. He was around 5'11 with shaggy dirty blonde hair and piercing green eyes. He never said much. Whether he was just a reserved person, or merely speaking to her out of politeness and not real desire, she could never tell. Though she doubted a Brooklyn newsie to value courteousness.

Today's headlines where great. Half of Galveston Destroyed by Hurricane – Island Town in Ruins. 3,000 DEAD! The papes were basically selling themselves for once. After quickly selling through nearly sixty with just the morning edition, she decided to take the afternoon off and just relax. For September, it was still fairly warm out, but the heat was quickly fleeting. She headed over to the docks to find a few newsies enjoying one of their last warm swimming days. For once, she was taking pleasure in being ignored. She wanted to simply sit back and relax. Of course, Spot had other things on his mind for her.

"Yo Myst, why don't ya go do some work? Or is Brooklyn too tough for ya?"

She quickly turned to face the most bipolar newsie she had ever met. "Like you have any room to talk." As soon as her eyes fell on him, she instantly wished they hadn't. He had just crawled out of the river and was wearing nothing but soaking wet boxers and a necklace displaying a key. She immediately adverted her eyes, shut them, and pretended to be sun bathing. However, this didn't stop him from walking over to her. He shook his sopping hair out directly on to her, and it was COLD. Before she even had a chance to scream at him, he had scooped her up into his arms.

Every nerve in her body started humming. The electric shocks she had once yearned for, where now making themselves known yet again. But as quickly as they came on, they left her completely. The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by cold water. As she broke the surface she began looking around for Spot, she was going to kill him.

He was still standing on the pier, with his arms crossed and a smirk ever-present. Normally the sight would still cause her to melt. This time, she just wanted to smack it off of him. In spite of this, after she swam over to the ladder, a noticed a slight problem with her plan. Like how she was going to climb up with only one hand since she couldn't use her right side.

As though reading her mind, Spot dove in behind her to lend a hand. Unfortunately, the only way he could manage to 'lend a hand' was to boost her up by placing his hand on her rear. Though she was sure it was an innocent maneuver, she felt he was occupying a slightly less pure mental state. Could be due to the small squeeze he issued right as she reached the top.

Once he was fully on the dock, Myst delivered that oh so satisfying slap. He looked back at her in absolute shock as she walked away. It was a good thing she reached the lodging house when she did, that way no one would she the blush establishing itself in her cheeks.

*

That night, Spot was waiting for her on the roof for a change. Normally she was always the first to arrive. As she plopped down next to him he turned to her and stated, "You slapped me."

"Yeah, well you threw me in the water. And grabbed my ass," she replied as casually as she could.

For once, he had no retort. So they simply resigned to looking out at the night sky. After a few moments though, the silence was broken. "How long do ya think ya gonna be here?"

"That eager to get rid of me?" She was only half joking. A big part of her truly did wonder if he wanted to get rid of her.

"Opposite actually. Think Jack would let ya just stay here?"

Myst immediately began chuckling, though Spot could detect no humor in her laugh. "Yeah. That'll happen," she replied sarcastically.

"Would ya, stay? If I could get him to say yes?"

"He won't. Not with this stupid conflict going on between Manhattan and Brooklyn."

"Ya still didn't answer me? Would ya?"

**A/N : **So not a lot going on in this chapter. I just wanted you guys to get a feel for Myst's and Spot's relationship so you can understand future events. Also, I'm so ocd I have to be historically correct with everything. The headline I used was the actual headline from The World on 10Sep1900. That being said, I know that the term bipolar wasn't used until much later on, but it was the best way I could describe Spot's personality. Sue me.

Also thanks again for all the wonderful reviews! You guys are all awesome. And please, if you see something wrong, let me know. Otherwise I'll never notice it lol.


	8. Anthony

**Chapter 8 : Anthony**

It had been a week and a half since she came to Brooklyn, and still no word from Jack. At first, Myst found this insanely unnerving. Thoughts of her father killing Jack, or any other newsies, flooded her mind. Spot had told her, that if something had happened, he would hear about it. This calmed her down slightly, but the not knowing was still suffocating her. Furthermore, her and Spot's 'relationship' was starting to strain her. Their fighting started increasing each day, mostly driven by trying to force one another out of their minds. She thought about him constantly, even though she tried not to. Part of her yearned for him, yearned for Scott. Part of her hated everything about Spot Conlon.

In an attempt to get him out of her thoughts, and due to a particularly nasty fight they had the day before, she decided to sell with Spike today. She just needed a break from all the high emotions Spot drove into her. Spike was a very interesting person. At first glance, people would run in fear. He was extremely brutish, and a little rough around the edges. Not to mention he was very quiet, he hardly ever spoke to anyone. But once you gave him a chance, he instantly surprised you. He was witty, funny, and gentle-hearted. It almost seemed as if he didn't quite fit in with the rest of the Brooklyn newsies.

As they walked around selling their morning papes a very interesting conversation started to arise.

"Did ya see Spot's face this mornin? He's gonna kill us before the day is out," Spike began.

"Why would he do that?"

"Cause I'm sellin with ya. Cause ya ain't selling with him," he stated, very to the point. She liked that about him, he didn't hold anything back.

"Well, Spot needs to learn that I can take care of myself."

"So why are ya sellin with me?"

"Pretty much so I'd have someone to talk to," she imperturbably replied. "It makes the day go by faster when you have someone with you."

"Fair enough. But technically, we ain't suppose to talk to ya."

"What?! Why?" she was thoroughly confused.

"Cause Spot told us all not to talk to ya the day ya came. We never even knew he had a new girl."

"Woah, woah, woah. I am NOT his girl!" she was quick to state. _Not anymore at least._

Spike merely rolled his eyes before saying, "Yeah, right, and I'm the mayor."

Myst could do nothing more than stand there with her mouth hanging open as Spike crossed the street to sell to a middle-class couple.

*

Spot was furious. He was enraged. _She chose Spike over me?!_ He was going to kill him. He made sure to tell all of his men not to even speak to her. Yet, there was Spike, off selling with her. Directly disobeying his order.

As he sat on the pier fuming over the events of this morning. An unfamiliar face appeared on his dock. With his current state, this was never a good sign for the unlucky intruder. He walked over with a full intent to bash this guys head in. The trespasser was tall, around 6'0 with dark brown hair. Judging from his well-dress, he most definitely did not belong here.

"Mind tellin me what ya doin on my property?" Spot asked casually as he walked over to the unknown man. Though every word was laced with venom.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I'm simply looking for my fiancé," he replied back. Spot could tell he wasn't exactly "upper-class" maybe "middle-class" at best. Either way, he didn't like him.

"Well ain't no girls here."

"Damn, I was so sure I saw Emma here the other day." This time the man didn't seem so much to be talking to Spot, as though more speaking aloud.

"E-Emma?"

"Yes! Have you heard of her? I've been trying to track her down for quite some time now."

"Fiancé?!"

*

It took Myst nearly a minute to catch up with Spike. With him being almost a foot taller then her, his strides where quite a bit bigger then her own. The sun was beginning to set and she was more than ready to get back to her room and relax a little.

Myst walked into her room and was instantly engulfed in darkness. As she reached over to flick on the light, she nearly screamed. Someone grabbed her wrist abruptly and twisted her to face them. With her free hand still on the switch, she flicked the light on, at least wanting to see her attackers face before he attempted to pummel her to death. Attempted being the key word, Myst could definitely handle herself, even if it didn't show with her father. That was mostly due to absolute shock though.

As the light began to flow her bedroom, it illuminated Spot's features. Myst relaxed slightly, but something about the way Spot was looking at her, told her to keep her guard out. He pushed her down onto her bed, but he remained standing, glaring down at her.

"Funny thing happen today. I met someone with a very interestin story," he spat down at her.

Confusion flooded her face, but the sheer anger at the way he was treating her remained. "Yeah, and tell me, why should I care again?"

"Cause it was about YOU!" Spot's voice had risen to a scream. In all their arguments, he always remained so monotonous, one thing that often annoyed her. Now, in it's absence, she began desperately wishing for his stoic nature to return.

"Oh, what about me?" She hoped her voice neglected to show how nervous she truly was.

"I don't know. Maybe the fact that ya engaged!"

"Engaged?!" Now she really was confused again. What on earth was Spot even talking about.

"Don't even bother tryin to lie to me this time Emm. I met the guy!" Myst was on her feet in the next instance.

"What guy? Spot I'm not engaged!" She found herself preventing a laugh from escaping. This whole thing was so ridiculous.

"Stop! Just stop! I'm done with ya lies, and I'm done with you!"

He slammed the door in her face as he stormed out of her room. Myst threw her arms out to her sides and allowed herself to fall backwards onto her bed.

"What the heck was that about?" she silently muttered.

*

_-Dream Sequence-_

_Myst was in a crowded room, screaming out for anyone to notice her. People continued to walk past her, around her, through her. She couldn't get them to stop. Finally the room started to clear up as people began taking their seats. The room suddenly transferred into the chapel her grandmother use to take her to on Sundays. She recognized the face of the aging minister as the one from her grandmother's church. Every other face was shrouded in black, as though in mourning._

_As a hush grew throughout the room, she felt a very gentle tug on her left arm. She turned to look into the face of her father, but not as she had last seen him. He looked as he did when she was a child, smiling down at her with love in his eyes. He guided her down the aisle, though every step forward, and the minister only grew further away. She looked around the room, trying to figure out what was going on, see if anyone else noticed the altar moving. No one flinched, no one blinked, no one acknowledged her._

_She turned to her dad to ask him what was going on, but though sensing her question he replied, "Don't worry, kitten. It will be over fast."_

"_What will be over fast. Daddy, what's going on?"_

_He never responded. He simply let go of her arm. A force she couldn't even see began to quickly drag him back. She turned to face the minister, beg him to help, when suddenly she realized she was standing directly before him._

"_Father, please. I don't understand what is happening."_

"_Dearly Beloved. We are gathered together here in the sign of God, and in the face of this company-"_

"_Father? Can't you hear me?" she began to interrupt, but he never halted._

"_-to join together this man and Emma Sullivan in holy matrimony-"_

"_Matrimony?!" Myst glanced to her right and saw a man with no face. Jack appeared to be his best man and flashed her a loving smile. "Jack! Jack! Can you see me? I don't understand!"_

_Suddenly someone began shaking her shoulder. She turned to see who it was, but no one was there. She quickly turned back to Jack who had a look of panic on his face. He locked eyes with her and gently shock his head while mouthing 'no'._

_The tug at her shoulder became a little stronger and she turned again, sure that someone must be there this time. But again, no one._

"_Do you, Emma, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband-"_

"_Huh?" She turned to face the minister again. Desperate to stop him. To figure out what was going on._

_Suddenly the minister stopped reading his vows and looked her dead in the eyes. "Emmmmmaaa" The tugging at her shoulder became intense. It felt as though some one was trying to pull her down into the ground. "Emmmmmaaa" he repeated._

_-End Dream Sequence-_

Myst jolted up from her sleep when a hand quickly covered her mouth. Successfully preventing her from screaming, she slowly turned her head to find her vision drowning into gray blue depths. She knew those eyes too well. Spot removed his hand from her mouth, certain that she wasn't going to scream.

"Emm, ya ok?"

"Yeah, just a weird dream is all." Myst began to look around her room, scared that she had overslept. It was still dark outside, too dark. "What time is it?"

"Near midnight. I couldn't sleep."

"So you decided to wake me up? I could have been in the middle of an amazing dream."

"But ya weren't, " he flashed her a small smirk.

"Well I could have been," she gave the best fake pout performance she could muster, having just been woken up. "Hey, wait. Aren't you mad at me?"

"Yes. I don't know. I want the truth Emm, no holding back," He looked over at her, for once a slight softness to his features.

She reached over and placed her hand on top of his. Instantly, she regretted it. The quivering that always accompanied their touch, sent chills down her spine. But she fought through it and kept her hand where it was. "Spot, I wasn't lying to you. In fact, aside from not telling you about Jack, I've never once lied to you. When are you going to realize that?"

Then Spot did something neither of them could understand. He leaned forward. He got so close she could feel his staggered breath on his lips. Instinctively she closed her eyes, waiting for him to close the distance. Almost a full minute passed with no contact. Then as suddenly as it had started, he pulled away and strode over to their connecting washroom. He stopped as his hand reached the knob. "Good Night, Emm," and with that, he was gone.

Myst fell back onto her mattress and stared at her ceiling before muttering, "What just happened?"

*

Spot made it back to his bedroom and flopped down on his bed with a sigh. _What am I doing?! I know I can't have her._

The next morning, Spot literally had to drag himself out of the bed. He had tossed and turned all night. He believed Myst, but he couldn't figure out why that guy would make up that lie. It all just didn't seem to make sense to him. Add in the fact that thing were becoming more and more strained between Brooklyn and Manhattan, and a good night's rest was basically out of the question.

As he reached the bathroom, he found Myst already inside brushing her teeth. His breath still caught in his throat every time he saw her, despite his best efforts. Thankfully, she had gotten over her morning shyness in the washroom. She scooted over slightly to allow room for him at the sink and handed him his toothbrush. After he grabbed it, he tossed her over her hair brush and moved so she could use the mirror. It was like this every morning. Neither of them was much of a morning person, but they quickly fell into one another's dawn routines.

They each headed to their respective rooms to grab their day's money and their hats and headed out to the distribution center. They normally never said a single word to one another until after they bought their papes, and today was no different.

"Coal Miner Strike in Action! Thousands tortured alive!" Myst cried out. With all the great headlines lately, it wasn't long before both of them had sold out. Myst was trying to get rid of her last two morning papes while Spot lounge on a set of steps nearby. He suppressed a slight grin as he watched her.

When she was done, they headed off to the piers nearby to relax, debating whether or not they felt like taking the afternoon off.

"Ya know, ya ain't half bad," he stated as they drew near to their destination.

"Not half bad? Please. I could out sell you any day," she glance up at him with an adorable cheeky grin.

"Yeah, that's why I sold twice as many as ya today and still finished before ya."

"Hey. I was just taking my time. No need to rush perfection." He swatted her hat away from her head and continued forward.

After she got her hat back, she began sneaking after him, with plans to take his hat and throw it in the river. In truth, she wasn't very sneaky, and she had a feeling he could sense her catching up to him. Still, he never once turned around.

When she was close to a foot behind him with her arm outstretched she saw someone out of the corner of her eye that maybe her freeze in action.

"Emma?"

She whipped around to see more clearly who had called her name, "Anthony?" Spot stopped in his tracks as well and turned to see who was there as well. It was the man from yesterday. The man who called himself Myst's fiancé. Spot's blood began to boil. He started forward to attack but Myst held up an arm to stop him. _Why is she protecting him?_

"Emma, I can't believe it is really you. I've been trying to find you ever since you left. A few news boys over in Queens said I might find you here." He stepped forward to embrace her but she only stepped back.

"What are you doing here?" Spot could detect revulsion in Myst's voice. Some how, this pleased him more than he cared to admit.

"I came here for you silly. I told you, I wanted to marry you. You-"

Myst stopped him before he could continue on. "Wait. Marry?" She turned to face Spot. "Is this the guy from yesterday?" Spot simply nodded once at her, however his glare remained focus on Anthony. Myst whisked around to face Anthony yet again.

All those things she longed to say to this man, all those nights she dreamed about screaming in his face, began swirling around her head. _You Jerk! You Pig! You made me feel worthless! Like nothing more than a common whore! I loved you! I gave myself to you! I trusted you!_ Yet oddly enough, none of those things made their way to her mouth. Only one thing felt right.

She walked over to Anthony and gave him the sweetest smile her face would allow. He grinned down at her with lust in his eyes. The next few moments all happened too quick for anyone viewing to even process. Myst kneed him with all her might directly where it counts. As he leaned forward, cupping his crotch, she struck a hard right blow to his cheek. She followed it up with a quick left upper cut and as he fell back on to the dock, everyone around just went silent.

Feeling that her job was done, was began to walk away. James had taught her well.

"You bitch! You good for nothing whore!" Anthony screamed at her back. Myst saw Spot move in to attack but she beat him to it. In the next instant her boot heel was pressed firmly into Anthony's throat.

"Leave. Now." She applied minimal pressure to his neck, but minimal was all that was needed. "If you ever step foot in Brooklyn again.. My face _will_ be the last thing you see." Every word she spoke was deadly. As his eyes began to widen, she regretfully lifted her foot and this time, continued her walk off the pier.

It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted from her. Like she could finally forget all about that sorry excuse of a man. She made it to her room and slide down to a sitting position directly behind her door. Nothing in this world could stop the huge grin from filling her face.

*

That night, she headed up to the bench, feeling the happiest she had felt in a long time. As she reached the top, Spot was already waiting on her, his face fully unreadable.

"You kicked him outta Brooklyn," he stated as she sat down next to him.

"Yes, yes I did."

"Ya know I'm the only one allowed to do that," he gave her a look that she could tell was suppressed humor.

Smiling over at him, Myst replied in a sing-song manner, "Yes, but he doesn't know that." Spot couldn't resist laughing at her charm, which only made her smile. She loved his laugh.

After a few moments of enjoyable silence, Spot continued, "So where did ya learn to fight like that?"

"James. Bartender in the brothel, he taught all the girls how to fight. We had to know since we were usually dealing with a room full of drunk guys."

Spot merely nodded in understanding before asking what she knew he had been waiting to ask ever since the pier, "What's the deal with Anthony?"

After revealing what had happened, Myst sat back and cringed, waiting for Spot to think the worst of her. He surprised her by reaching over and placing his arm around her shoulder.

"Just so ya know, if I ever see him again. He's dead."

Myst looked over at Spot, smiling that he didn't think less of her. However, again she found his lips incredibly close. This time, she was the one to lean in slightly. But right as she got close enough that their noses were touching, he stood up.

"It's gettin late, Myst. I'll see ya in the mornin." After he walked way, she sat there completely confused for a few moments. _What is wrong with him? What is wrong with me?_

**A/N : **Thanks for all the reviews guys! You make me wanna keep writing more and more! Lol

Hope ya'll enjoy this chapter. And just incase anyone was wondering, Myst's headline was from September 15th 1900 and actually read "3,000 Coal Miners Reign Great Strike" I am going to post pictures of the newspapers on my profile, if anyone is interested.


	9. Welcome Home

**Chapter 9 : Welcome Home**

It had been nearly three days since the incident with Anthony. For some reason though, Myst began to notice Spot avoiding her. He always seemed to be leaving the washroom every morning, just as she would enter. They still sold together, however he no longer waited to walk with her to the distribution center. To top it all off, he stopped joining her on the roof at night. Worst thing about it, was that Myst had no idea why. At first, she blamed herself. She thought that maybe she had crossed some unknown boundary when she had leaned in to kiss him. But the more she thought about it, the more it didn't make sense. She had tried asking him what was wrong, but he merely supplied 'I don't know what ya talkin about' and dropped the conversation.

Although, Spot's mood wasn't the only thing that seemed to change. After Myst so successfully dealt with Anthony, the Brooklyn newsies began treating her differently. For the first time since she came to Brooklyn, she noticed they had stopped glaring at her. In fact, a few of them even spoke to her. It was though they had gained respect for her. They began treating her like she belonged. It was a feeling almost like being back in Manhattan, a feeling she didn't realize how much she missed.

Spot, aside from treating her like she didn't exist, evidently did not particularly agree to his newsies behavior. Though instead of stopping it, he merely chose to storm off anytime someone would come over to speak to her. Initially, when Myst was blaming herself, she felt horrible. She would run after him, try to get him to talk to her. But eventually, she stopped caring. If he had a problem with her or any of the other newsies, it was _his_ problem.

After three days of dealing with a brooding Spot, Myst was exhausted. They had finished selling their afternoon rounds and he just took off without a word, leaving her standing in front of the lodging house ready to scream. She pounded up the stairs to go mull alone in her bedroom. She was so frustrated she didn't even notice poor Spike until it was too late. Myst nearly pummeled through him but thankfully he caught his balance on the hallway wall before falling completely over.

"Hey! What's a matter with you?" he asked, genuine concern in his voice.

This only made Myst feel more guilty. She wasn't intentionally trying to take her anger out on any one else, especially not Spike. "I'm sorry." She threw her hand to forehead and released a frustrated sigh. "It's just Spot. He is driving me crazy!"

Spike sent her a knowing look before replying, "Wanna talk about it?"

"Yes. No. I don't know. I don't want to bother you with my issues."

"Come on," he grabbed her hand and dragged her the rest of the way to her bedroom. As they entered he pulled out a deck of cards and took a seat on her bed. "Playin cards always calms me down," he supplied when she shot him a confused glance.

Myst took her cue and joined him on the bed. As he began to deal her in, they started talking about everything on her mind.

*

Night had well since fallen and Myst had turned on the light in her room so her and Spike could continue playing. He was right, she did feel a world better. It was just the kind of thing Race would have done for her. Of course, Race usually beat her every time. Spike was good, but Myst had actually managed to win at a few hands.

Spike was right in the middle of teaching her how to play black jack, when her bathroom door suddenly swung open.

"Well now, what do we have here?" Spot sneered down at the two of them.

Myst rolled her eyes and went to tell him to shove it and get lost, when Spike jumped up and answered before her. "Sorry Spot. I was just teachin her some card games." Myst looked over at Spike like he was nuts. Spike was nearly twice the size of Spot, yet he was apologizing to him? _Newsies.. They never make any sense_

Spot walked over to stand inches away from Spike. "Didn't I tell ya to stay clear of her? Twice now?"

"What's so wrong with someone wanting to spend time with me? Just because you can't stand to be in a room with me, doesn't mean everyone else feels the same." Myst spat out.

Spot glanced over at her for a brief second before returning his gaze to Spike. "I'll deal with you later." Taking Spot's hint, Spike quickly moved out of the small bedroom, never once glimpsing over at Myst. "What the hell do ya think ya doin?" All of Spot's attention was now focused solely on Myst.

Not especially in the mood to deal with Spot or his shifting moods, Myst stood up to face him, wanting to get this whole ordeal over with fast. "Mind explaining what exactly you are referring to?" she asked, her voice as laid-back as possible.

"You know what I'm talkin about! How do ya think it looks, you alone in ya room with a guy! It ain't proper!" he shouted over at her.

"What do you call this then? You're a guy, I'm alone with you now." She snipped back, anger rising inside her at his accusation.

"That's- That's different!" he screamed out.

"How? How it is different?!"

"Because it's me!" his voice strained out.

"So? What makes you so special?! Why do you get to be above the law?" In truth, Myst only said this for one purpose. She wanted him to admit how he really felt. Admit why he ran every time they'd almost kissed.

Unfortunately, he only supplemented, "Because it's _my_ law! I can break it however I want!" before storming back into the bathroom and slamming the door in her face.

_I need a break _she thought was she stared at the closed door.

*

The next day, Myst woke up and went about her morning routine, completely avoiding Spot. She noticed him waiting outside for her, but she simply walked right past him. The whole way to the distribution center, she could feel his eyes on her back, but instead of turning around and confronting him, she kept her head forward. Spot was always the first to buy his papes in the morning, so Myst held back allowing him to pass. She waited until Spike came into view and handed him a note, before heading out. She wasn't planning on selling today, she just wanted Spot to think she was.

By the time she made it to the Brooklyn Bridge, she could hear the newsies behind her start to shout out headlines. This only made her walk faster. She wasn't sure how Spot would feel about her going to Manhattan for a day, but she knew how all the other Brooklyn newsies would feel. Technically, the two boroughs had decided not to step foot on one another's grounds, period, for the time being. Myst wasn't exactly sure where she stood on these terms since she was a Manhattan newsies living in Brooklyn, but she was going anyway.

When she finally made it over to Manhattan it was near lunch so she headed over to Tibby's. When she entered the restaurant, which was filled with newsies, everyone instantly fell dead silent.

"Wow, with such a warm welcoming, a girl would think you didn't want her here." She flashed a smirk, hoping to break the silence in the room.

Jack stood up and walked over to her. He embraced her in a tight hug before pulling back slightly to look her very critically in the eyes. "Are ya ok, Myst? Did somethin happen in Brooklyn?"

Deciding not to admit about her fight with Spot since that would only bring up more questions, she replied, "Um.. No. I just missed you guys. And since no one has bothered to even come visit me, "she sent Race a pointed look before transferring it back to Jack, "I decided to come see you guys myself."

"Hey now, it ain't our fault we can't go into Brooklyn," Race said. He knew she was mostly joking, but she could detect some guilt in his eyes.

As Jack led her over to his table, conversation slowly began to pick up around her. After the waiter left with her order, she turned back to face Jack. "So what's been going on over here? Any news on dad?"

Jack looked down at the plate in front of him, which was never a good sign, "Mush says he saw him the other day when he was on his way to Midtown. About a week ago a letter came from you. Kloppman says he never saw the man before, but that he was older."

"Letter? Did you read it? What did it say?" she asked right as her food was delivered.

"Yeah, I read it.."

"Well?" all Myst could think about was why Jack was still refusing to look her in the eye. She knew that trick well, he was hiding something from her.

"Let's just say, you have to stay in Brooklyn until we can figure out what to do with dad." Finally Jack looked at her. He still wasn't telling her the full truth, but she noticed fear in his eyes.

"What did it say, Jack?" she asked very directly.

"We'll talk about it later," Jack glanced around the room as though stating there were too many listeners at the moment. Myst decided to put it aside for the moment and try to focus on something other than drama, something she had been dealing with too much lately.

As she began to eat, a new emotion started to swell inside her. Frustration. She thought by coming to Manhattan, by surprising Jack, she would spend one day surrounded by love. Yet ever since she had walked into the diner, she got an insatiable feeling like she didn't belong. Like her being in Manhattan was inconvenient for everyone else. _I've only been gone for two weeks and they act like I don't deserve to be here! Didn't anyone even miss me?_

*

It was around noon and Spot's anger had well surpassed it's boiling point. He had every intention of apologizing to Myst today, yet it was a little hard to apologize to someone who was no where to be found. The only thing stronger than his anger, was his sheer worry for her. It wasn't like her to take off without so much as a warning. To make matters worst, every newsies he saw today, claimed they hadn't seen her around either.

Spot's mood was effecting him so poorly, he had hardly even sold any papes over the course of the day. He finally decided to give up completely and focus on finding her, though he wasn't quite sure if he'd apologize or ring her neck for causing him to worry. When he finished selling back all his remaining papes, he started to head out on his search when he heard someone call out to him. He turned to see Spike running up the street towards him.

Considering that Spike was on his to-kill-for-disobeying-me list, he found it slightly odd that the newsies was making his attention known. Most of his newsies knew to lay low and let Spot cool off for a few days if they had crossed him. Yet here was Spike, screaming his name. Instantly an envious voice in his head told him to look around for Myst, figuring that they were together, however she was no where to be seen, still.

Once Spike had caught up to him he merely handed Spot a note. Spot glared up at Spike before asking, "What's this?"

"It's from Myst. She told me to get it to ya."

Spot unfolded the note and anger began to course through him even stronger, though now, he wasn't sure who it was aimed at.

_Spot, I've left for Manhattan, if you even care. –Myst._

He crumbled the note up and stuffed it in his pocket before walking away, not even bothering to acknowledge Spike. He was heading to Manhattan.

*

After lunch Jack and Race walked back to the lodging house with Myst. Jack had stayed quiet the whole trip. Once they got inside and up to the bunkroom, Jack lead them over to his bunk and pulled a wrinkled note out from his pillow casing. Myst's hands began shaking as she read each word five times over.

_I know about Pennsylvania, whore! You ruined my life, now I'll ruin yours. And I WILL finish what I started.._

_He knows about Pennsylvania? How? How could he have found out if he was in jail? It doesn't make any sense._ Myst's thoughts were flying at a hundred miles per hour. At first she thought he was speaking of her time spent with her grandmother, but she never did anything wrong. Add in the fact that he called her a whore, and all she could think of was her three years spent in a brothel. As suddenly as the questions had arisen, they all stopped. She remembered one night vividly. She had been working at the cathouse for almost a year, when a man came in. She recognized him but she couldn't remember from where. Turns out he had been one of her grandmother's servants. She had begged him not to say a word. But did he keep his promise? _Apparently not_.

"Myst?" Jack had evidently had been trying to get her attention but she had been so lost in thoughts she didn't hear him at first.

"Huh? What?" she threw the note back onto Jack's bed, not wanting to look at it again.

"What happened in Pennsylvania?" he was looking at her seriously, waiting for an answer.

Myst glanced over to see the same look on Racetrack's face, but she didn't know how to answer them.

**A/N : **Ok, first off, I am sorry this chapter took a little longer to get out. I'm such a klutz, I spilled pink lemonade all over my laptop so all the keys became sticky. I had to break it down and clean it up, lol. Secondly, I'm forward apologizing for what will be a delay in the next chapter. I had a huge mid-term paper due next week and I need to focus on getting that written before I can post the next chapter. So hopefully Chapter 10 will be up by Monday.

Also, I know I've already asked Huffle, but I'm going to ask all of my reviewers now… Would you guys rather have two 100k+ worded stories, or three 50K+ worded stories? Lemme know!


	10. Please

**Chapter 10 : Please**

**A/N : **Ok, so I lied. I can't focus on my History paper, so I'm going to post one more chapter.. Maybe then I will be able to focus, or my professor is going to kill me.

*

The walk into Manhattan had seemed to fly by. This would be quite possibly the fasted Spot ever made it across the bridge. Or maybe it only seemed swift because his mind was so preoccupied. Constantly he found his mind being drifted off to the night before. On some level, he knew he was irrational. On some level, he knew he was a jerk. Mostly, he knew he was just being jealous.

That she had left without giving him a chance to apologize was killing him. The only reason he had been pushing her away so much over the past week was because of Jack. Because of a stupid promise he made. Yes, Brooklyn and Manhattan were on bad terms, but Jack was still one of his closest friends. Not to mention, newsie wars never lasted forever. Jack had asked him to stay away, so that is what he was trying to do, whether he wanted to or not. But above all of that, he was beating himself up over the fact that she had left and he couldn't protect her. _What if her dad saw her in Manhattan? What if Anthony was laying in wait to attack?_

As he stepped off the bridge, he was still debating on the best way to beg her to come back, when suddenly he caught sight of Kid Blink walking over towards him. There was just something abut Blink that Spot didn't like. He could never put his finger on it, but for whatever reason, Blink irritated Spot every time he looked at him.

"You're not suppose to be here, Spot," Blink sneered over at him.

"Yeah, well I need to see Jack," Spot stated, never once halting his brisk pace.

"Does it have anythin to do with why Myst is here?"

Suddenly Spot stopped and turned to face Blink, "Ya seen her?"

"Maybe I have. Doesn't mean I'm tellin ya where she is." Spot was done with small talk. He marched over to Blink and punched him in his good eye. As the boy doubled over, Spot swung around and continued on his way. He knew he had crossed the thin line, but that didn't matter to him, all that mattered was her.

*

"Well?" Jack repeated, his impatience with Myst growing every second.

"It's- It's nothing, Jack." Myst began to walk over to her room, hoping that the subject would be dropped. She knew once she heard two sets of footsteps following her, that her meager answer would not resolve the issue.

"Emm?" Some one had called her name from downstairs. She knew that voice oh to well. Before Jack or Race could even think to stop her, she ran the rest of the length to her bedroom. Once she was inside, she quickly shut the door and locked it, before crumpling at the foot of the door. She came to Manhattan to get away from stress, yet all she was finding here was drama.

"Emm?" Spot called out again as he reached to bunkroom. He locked eyes with a very confused Jack and Race.

"Spot? What are ya doin over here?" Race asked as Spot drew closer to the two guys.

"It Myst here?" Jack and Race glanced over at the shut door to her bedroom. Spot shoved passed them and began banging on the door. "Em-Myst, we need to talk."

"Can't it wait?" she cried back through the door. Honestly she had no clue what she was doing. She didn't know why she had lock herself in her old room. But she did know one thing, Jack was going to be furious with her.

"Myst, ya need to come back with me.. please." Spot nearly whispered the last part, he felt embarrassed to be saying please in front of Jack and Race. He was the tough, fearless leader of Brooklyn. He never said 'please'.

"Spot, please, can we just talk about this later," she begged out. Her heart felt like it was about to pound out of her chest. It was like she was living two lives, lying in both, and it was all beginning to catch up with her at once.

Spot bit the inside of his mouth, forcing himself not to bark at her. He came to apologize, not to fight with her more. "No," he forced out. "We need to talk about what happened last night."

"What happened last night?" Jack sent a fatal look in Spot's direction.

"It's not what you're thinking, Jack," Myst answered. "Calm down. We just had a fight."

"Oh yeah, about what?" Jack crossed his arms, his glare never leaving Spot.

"Spot was just being a jerk. He attacked me for hanging out with some guy."

Considering that Myst didn't choose her words well, Jack slammed Spot into the door. "Ya attacked my sister?!"

"Calm down, Cowboy!" Spot grunted out. "We just had a little argument."

"Myst? That true?" Jack asked, decisively choosing not to believe a word of what Spot had said, kept a tight hold on Spot's neck.

"Yes," Myst answered, feeling slightly guilty that she had left her reply so open to interpretation.

Jack finally released Spot, but continued to glare at him.

"Is that why ya came here?" This time it was Race who spoke. Spot glanced over at the unusually silent boy. Race locked eyes with him before suddenly grinning, a knowing look on his face. But before Spot could decipher just what it was Race knew, the door behind him swung open.

"Race?!" Myst had finally stepped out of her safe haven to walk over to her friend. When she got close enough to make contact, she reached out and took Race's hands in her own. "You guys are my family. I came because I missed you." She leaned forward and embraced him. As she pulled back, Race sent her the same knowing smile. Unlike Spot, she knew why he was displaying that look. Her eyes immediately widened.

"Myst?" Jack called out from behind her. Deciding to put Race at the back of her mind and deal with him later, she slowly turned to face Jack. "What happened in Pennsylvania?" his voice was firm and steady.

Myst gulped and looked down at her feet. She took a few deep breaths before raising her gaze back to her brother. Then Spot suddenly injected, "What, they don't know?

Spot glanced around at each person, but one look at the paling face of Myst answered him. He started to feel guilty that he had opened his mouth, yet an odd sense of pride swelled in him that she had trusted him enough to tell him.

"Ya told _him_ but ya won't tell me?!" Jack screamed out.

Myst could take anything people dealt her. She prided herself on how she wasn't like most women in her day who constantly needed a man's protection. In fact she would usually go out of her way just to make some one mad for the fun of it. But not Jack. Having him mad at her broke her heart. She fell to the floor and hugged her knees, hiding her face behind her arms.

"Jack, I'm sorry. I should have told you," she kept her face hidden as she spoke. Then suddenly she felt she felt a pair of arms circle around her. She glanced up to see Jack kneeling before her.

"Myst, just talk to me," he pleaded.

"You know how I said I left grandmother's then caught odd jobs to make money so I could come here?"

"Yeah..."

"Well.. I kind of lied." As Myst began to retell the events leading up to her arrival in New York over two months ago, she watched Jack carefully. He never said a word as she spoke, but his face slowly grew darker and darker. She tried not to notice, yet each word she spoke, became more difficult to speak, especially when she covered the part about Anthony. As she spoke about Anthony, she caught Spot's eye with the corner of her vision, anger was radiating from his body, but she didn't stop. She knew if she stopped, she wouldn't be able to start back up again.

"I didn't say anything to you sooner, because I was scared you'd think less of me," she ended weakly. When she finished, she waited on the floor for Jack to respond, to say something, anything. Alas, Jack merely stood up and marched out of the bunk room, leaving an empty void of silence in his wake.

Myst fought the tears back that where beginning to form in her eyes. Race stuck out a hand to pull her up. As she gratefully accepted it, he pulled her into his arms.

"Myst, I wish ya had told me sooner, but I know why ya didn't," he kissed her gently on the forehead before continuing, "No one would ever think less of ya, ya an amazin girl."

Myst hugged him tighter, thankful that Race wasn't angry with her. She glanced over at Spot again, and caught him casting Race an envious glare. She was about to say something, but then Race pulled away.

"Come on, let's go find Jack," Race said as he began walking to the stairwell.

Myst stayed in her place, staring at Spot. Spot, however, was not returning her look. Instead, his eyes remained fixed on Race, resentment pouring from his glare.

"Go on ahead, Race. I need to speak with Myst." Spot didn't even wait for a reply before grabbing Myst's hand and dragging her into her bedroom. As they entered the room, Spot quickly shut the door and pinned her back to a nearby wall, placing his hands above each of her shoulders. "We need to talk," he whispered down to her.

Trying to ignore the sparks running through her body, she murmured back, "Spot, what are you doing?"

Keeping his voice as low as a whisper, he looked her seriously in the eye, yet Myst could detect a hidden emotion that she couldn't understand. "Is there somethin goin on between you an Race?"

Myst, while suppressing a laugh from escaping, replied, "Race?! Are you serious?"

"Is there?" This time, Myst understood what was hiding in his eyes. It was the same emotion escaping in the undertone of his voice, desperation.

"No, Spot. He like a second brother to me, that's all."

Spot leaned his head forward so his forehead became pressed to hers while releasing a sigh of relief. But, minor relief aside, that didn't stop him from asking, "Why did ya leave?"

"I don't know, I just needed a break from the drama," she said.

"Emm, come back with me, please. I promised, no more fights."

This time, she did let a small laugh trickle. "No more fights? But that's half the fun between you and I."

He returned her laugh with a quiet one of his own, "Yeah, fightin with ya is too much fun to stop." Suddenly his voice turned more serious, "Ya sure nothin's goin on between you an Race?"

Myst raised her hand and placed it gently on the side of his face, "Spot, my heart only belongs to one guy. Now it's just up to him if he decides to choose me, or my brother." With that she ducked under his arms and strode out of her room leaving Spot leaning up against the wall.

When she walked into the bunkroom, she noticed Race standing at the top of the stairs with a huge smirk playing across his face. As she walked over to him she linked arms with him and they headed down the stairs together.

In a voice barely above a whisper, Race replied in a sing-song manner, "Looks, like some one owes me two bits.."

Myst barked out a laugh before whispering back, "You haven't won the bet yet Race."

Before Race could reply, they had reached the front door. It was wide open and Myst saw Jack sitting down on the front steps alone.

"Race, can you give me a moment?" Race nodded back at Myst, understanding that this was something she needed to do alone. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze before closing the door behind her and heading back up the stairs.

*

It took nearly a full two minutes after Myst had joined Jack on the steps for her to find her voice.

"Jack, I'm sorry if I disappointed you."

Jack swiftly turned to face her, shock prevalent on his face. "Myst, I'm not disappointed in ya. I'm disappointed in myself!"

Of all the emotions running through her, confusion was not the one she was excepting to feel. "What? Jack, what are you talking about?"

"If I had taken ya with me, if I hadn't left ya behind, ya never would've had to go through that," he stated as though this fact should have been obvious to her.

As Myst went to reply, the doors behind them opened again as Spot stepped out. He glanced between the two of them before turning back to Myst. She noticed the note present in his hand.

"Myst, ya need to come back with me. Ya can't stay here." The note was shaking in his hand as his grip on it began to tighten.

"Spot, I only came for the day. I'm not moving back yet."

Suddenly his face began to comprehend what she was saying. "But I thought.. Ya note made it sound like you were comin back here for good.."

Myst finally understood why he had rushed over to Manhattan, why he had been pleading her to return. She couldn't stop the small smile from spreading on to her face.

"Don't worry, Spot. I'll walk her back." Jack supplied.

Spot hesitated to the offer for a moment before nodding his acceptance. "Have her back by tonight, ya dad ain't the only one out there ya need to worry about." With that Spot walked off, but not before glancing back towards Myst, sending her a small smirk.

Thankfully, Jack didn't notice. "What's he talkin about?"

"Anthony," Myst stated.

"Anthony? That guy from Pennsylvania?"

"Yeah, he showed up about a week ago."

"Please tell me Spot soaked him," Jack pleaded with her.

Myst suppressed a small laugh before proudly saying, "Actually, no. I soaked him."

Jack looked taken aback at first, before laughing and placing his arm around her shoulder, "That's my girl."

**A/N :** Ok so now I seriously need to write my stupid mid-term paper. Hopefully this can hold you guys over for a few days lol.

Also, the bet Race and Myst are referring to is covered in chapter 4. It was that Race bet Myst she would fall for Spot incase ya'll forgot.


	11. Revenge

**Chapter 11 : Revenge**

After spending the rest of the afternoon hanging out with Jack and Race, Myst didn't want to leave. She truly missed just spending time with the two guys. So as Jack began to walk her back to Manhattan, Myst started to feel the pressure of tears tickling at the back of her eyes. By the time the pair reached the bridge, all small talk had long since dwindled out. It was as though they both felt the good-byes weighing down. Around the peak of the bridge, they didn't even notice a large form moving in the shadows. It wasn't until it finally stepped into a band of moonlight, that they both noticed him at all.

"I think it's time you learned your lesson, whore!" their dad barked out at them. Jack instantly moved to stand between the man and Myst.

"You're not comin anywhere near her," Jack growled out in warning.

"My, my. Francis. I should have know," he sneered over towards his son.

Jack, never removing his eyes from the man, whispered over his shoulder, "Myst, go!"

Not even giving her a chance to respond, Jack lunged at their father. Myst froze in her place for a moment, not wanting to leave Jack behind. Suddenly, as though fear had begun to take over her whole body, Myst took off passed the struggling men. She can't remember ever running as fast as she was. All she could think about was getting back to Spot.

*

Spot had been pacing his room for the passed hour since the sun had fully set. Jack had assured him that he would have Myst back by tonight. Every minute that ticked by seemed like an eternity. All he could think of was where she was, what was taking so long. He had nearly given up all hope of waiting and started heading over to his door, intending on going out to find her. Right as his hand landed on the door knob he heard Myst shouting from downstairs.

"Spot?! Spot?! Where are you?" she called out.

Spot wrenched his door open and flew down the steps two at a time. When he reached the bottom, shock began to swarm through him. In as long as he had known her, he had never once seen her how she was. Myst's whole body was trembling in fear, her eyes were screaming at him in panic. Spot ran over to her and embraced her, hoping to help her calm down. "Emm, what happened? What's wrong?"

She pushed him back from him slightly so she could see his face. "Spot, he-he was there. My dad showed up. J-Jack he-"

"Did he hurt you? Are you alright?" Spot interrupted while pulling back fully to inspect Myst for any damage.

"No, you don't understand. Jack! He is out there, he told me to run."

"Emm, calm down," he leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Just breathe. Jack's a big boy, he can take care of himself."

Myst knew he was trying to pacify her, but all he was doing was aggravating her. She wanted him to jump to action, to go help her brother. "He can take care of himself?" she asked while shooting him an irritated glare. "Well that's not good enough!" She spun on her heel, in full attempt to go back to the bridge and lend a hand.

She made it one step forward before Spot snaked his arm around her waist, dragging her back into the center of the room. "Emm, no. I'm not lettin you go back out there." He felt her begin to kick around at his legs, punch at his arm, but he didn't once drop his hold on her.

"Spot we have to go back!" she cried out. Of course, instead of listening to her, Spot bent down slightly to scoop her fully in his arms. As she continued her attempted attack on him, he hefted her over his shoulder to strengthen his hold on her. Spot carried her up the stairs, passed a room full of very confused newsies, and directly into her bedroom. He shut the door behind him then flipped her gently onto her bed. She tried to spring up but he merely pushed her back down onto the bed.

"Emm, ya not goin," his voice remained firm.

She sighed before looking up at him, pleading with her eyes. "Spot, please. What if something happens? What if Jack gets hurt. It'd be all my fault."

Spot knelt down to eye level with her and placed a hand on her right shoulder. "Emm, I'm suppose to be protectin you. I'm not lettin ya go out there to get hurt."

Myst threw herself forward, hugging on to Spot. At first he didn't respond, as though he didn't know what to do. After what seemed like a lifetime, Spot wrapped his arms around her, pulling her as close to him as possible. Myst tilted her head into his neck, electric sparks pleasurably attack her every nerve. Then Spot slowly turned his head into her, causing her breath to catch. They remained petrified for nearly a full minute, each pair of lips barely an inch separated. Suddenly she felt Spot begin to ball of his fists. His knuckles cracking under the pressure.

"Emm, we can't.." As he began to speak, every muscle inside her completely deflated. Myst shoved herself free of his grasp, casting him a dark glare. "Emm, please. Ya got to understand.." but as he spoke, she raised a hand to stop him.

"I get it. You've obviously made your choice," she responded, anger dripping from each word.

"Damnit, Emm. That's not what's goin on," he wanted her to understand, but she wasn't listening anymore.

"Just-just promise me you'll send someone to check on Jack tomorrow," she said while she crawled under her covers. Once situated, she rolled to her side so her back was to Spot. Taking her note, Spot slowly crept out of the room, taking once last glance over at her form.

*

The next day seemed to drag by. Myst was decisively ignoring Spot. The only thing she was looking forward to was Sprint coming back with news of her brother. Spot had sent the younger boy out first thing in the morning, but it seemed to her that he should have been back already. Yet as she sold the last of her afternoon papes, she still hadn't heard word back from him. Giving up on trying to ignore Spot, she started hunting him out. Naturally, she found him lounging on the dock playing with his sling shot. As he saw her walking towards him, he jumped off his crate. He had been trying to talk to her all day, explain why he was pushing her away, but she had been avoiding him.

"Emm, I need to talk to ya," he spoke as she drew closer.

Instantly, she ran the remainder of the distance, her heart pounding with fear of bad news. "What? What happened to him?" panic evident in her voice.

"Him who?" Spot grabbed her upper arm gently, not understanding what she was talking about.

"Jack?" she flashed Spot a look, as if she thought her question obvious.

"Oh. I sent Sprint over there to check on him."

"Yes. I know. But where is he?" she asked pointedly. Spot suddenly stared off in contemplation, trying to remember if he had seen the small boy over the course of the day. Before he could respond, he heard Myst emit a soft gasp and start running away. He followed her course and saw the small form of a young boy hobbling forward. It was Sprint.

Myst didn't know what had happened to the poor boy, but that instance, she didn't care. Spot had run up behind her and hefted him over his shoulder. The three of them took off for the lodging house, rushing to get him inside and figure out where all the blood was coming from. As Spot placed him on what Myst assumed was the boy's bunk, she ran into the washroom, grabbing as many damp cloths as she could carry.

By the time she reached the two boys, she heard Sprint say what sounded like 'Blink' but she couldn't be too sure. She highly doubted Blink had done this to the kid. Blink was so fun-loving and caring. Putting it out of her mind, she knelt on the free side and began dabbing away the blood on his face, hoping to find the original source.

*

It took nearly an hour, even with Spot's help, to patch up a vast majority of the wounds. To her untrained eye, it didn't appear as though there was anything seriously wrong. Her heart was breaking for the small blonde haired boy. He couldn't have been much older then twelve. She didn't understand why anyone would do this to him. Leaving Sprint to get some rest, she followed Spot out of the bunkroom before choosing to speak.

"Did he say what happened to him?"

Rage was radiated from every pore of Spot's body as he spoke, "Manhattan."

"What about Manhattan?"

Spot suddenly turned harshly to face her as he barked out, "They did this to him!"

Myst stumbled back, placing her hand across her chest. "What? No. They wouldn't. It doesn't make any sense."

"I never should have sent him over there. Not after what happened yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?" At first she thought he was speaking of her event on the bridge, but that didn't seem to add up at all.

"Nothin, just had a.. confrontation with Blink," Spot spat out, though not directing his anger towards her.

"Blink? When?" Nothing was making any sense to Myst. She knew things were rough between Brooklyn and Manhattan, but it never really seemed like anything serious.

"Look, just don't worry about it." He reached over and softly placed his hands on her shoulders, squaring her directly in front of him. "Can ya stay here and watch him, make sure he's ok? I gotta take care of somethin."

"Spot?" she began to ask warily.

He merely shook his head. "Don't worry, I'll be back in about an hour." As he took off down the stairs, Myst glanced over at the small boy. _What is going on here?_

*

Myst stood her watch diligently until the room slowly began filing up with newsies. Spike had come in right as she had finish explaining what she knew to a small group. He caught sight of her and ushered her back into the hallway.

"Myst. What's goin on around here? Spot's pullin together a group of guys, and now Sprint is all beat-"

"Spot's doing what?" she interrupted.

Spike blinked for a moment and pointed outside before stating obviously as though he thought she would have known about it, "He's puttin together some guys for an attack. Didn't he tell ya?"

"Well obviously not!" she stated, irritation fresh in her voice.

Spike placed a hand on her arm, "Hey, no need to get snippy." He flashed her a light smirk before continuing, "Besides, Spot's not exactly known for tellin his gir-"

"Spike!" Spot barked from behind them.

Forgetting about whatever the deal was between Spike and Spot, Myst ran over to Spot. "What are you planning?"

Spot glanced down at her before returning his glare over to Spike. "Don't worry about it," was all he supplied.

"A little late for that," she shouted as she moved her self directly in Spot's line of vision.

Spot grabbed her hand and dragged her into his bedroom, still never removing Spike from his sight until the door was shut.

Keeping their voices in whispers, Spot turned to her and grabbed her upper arms, "Emm, I want ya to stay away from him."

Myst wasn't in the mood to deal with Spot's jealousy. "Stop changing the subject. What are you planning?"

"We're going to Manhattan," Spot said while rolling his eyes.

"Spot, please, don't do this!" she begged while placing her hands on either side of his face.

"This is what I need to do. Ya have to understand that."

"Spot please, I'm begging you."

"Emm, I can't just call my guys off. They want blood," he was silently praying she would understand where he was coming from. The last thing he wanted was her angry with him, but as a leader, this is what he needed to do.

"Spot, you're asking me to be ok with you going to beat up my friends. How is anything about that ok?"

He stared directly into her eyes, looking for something but she wasn't sure what. It took Spot a long time to respond, and even when he did, it was a wordless response. He merely nodded at her before turning to head out of his room. As he reached the door he turned back to face her. "I meant what I said about Spike."

"You gave up the right to dictate who I speak to when you chose my brother over me."

Spot froze in his place, a million answers flowing through his mind. As he opened his mouth to reply, she interjected, "I'm holding you to your promise, Spot. If you go for revenge, I'll never forgive you," she stated as though it was an absolute fact. With that, she strode into the washroom en-route to her bedroom, leaving Spot still standing with his mouth ajar.

**A/N :** Ok, sorry again for the short chapter. I promise that any questions left un-answered will soon be resolved. Again, I just wanted to get this chapter out of the way for you guys, especially before the next few chapters which will be shifting pov's a lot.

Thanks for all the reviews, you guys are absolutely amazing. You make me not want to stop writing!


	12. Denser

**Chapter 12 : Denser**

The next morning, Spot woke up earlier than any of his other newsies. In fact he had probably made it half way across the bridge before any of them would even notice he had gone. None of that really mattered to him, he was on a mission to finish things once and for all. Incredibly, this was not his style. Normally, if anything happened to one of his men, he would be the first to exact vengeance. But stupid Myst, and her stupid ability to control him.

Choosing not to think of her, his mind began to wander to the night before. After she-who-must-not-be-thought-about had left him standing alone in his room, he walked out to find the small group of men he had lined up to head to Manhattan with him. When he told them that the attack had been cancelled, a mutiny almost erupted directly in front of the lodging house. It was a promise he made to them that he would settle everything today, that eventually caused them to fall back in line. He wasn't the only one beginning to feel the strain from fighting with Manhattan. Many of his newsies had friends living over there also. It was time to settling things for good.

*

When Myst woke up, it took only a few minutes to realize that Spot was gone. At first she considered the notion that he left for Manhattan against her wishes. Only after talking to a few people in the distribution line, did she learn that the attack had in fact been called off. Though this still didn't answer her question as to where he ran off to, it did ease her nerves considerably.

Seeing as how Spot was missing, she had every intention of simply selling alone for the day. That plan was scratched the moment Spike headed out with her. The two of them spent the morning chatting aimlessly and selling papes, counting the minutes until lunch. Myst loved food. Greatest invention EVER.

Trying almost desperately to get rid of her last pape, Myst began shouting, "Troops Causing Mayhem And Bloodshed… Read All About It!"

Thankfully, some lady graciously bought her last pape while Myst and Spike were already standing outside Angermeier's, a simple place much like Tibby's, but slightly more run down. The food was decent enough though.

After they both ordered, Myst finally began to remember the conversation from the night prior. "Hey Spike, what was it you were saying to me last night.. you know, before Spot jumped in."

Spike seemed to blush slightly, as though he suddenly didn't want to talk about it. He eventually decided to continue forth, "I was just gonna say, Spot don't really tell his girl's most of what he does. Likes to keep them at a distance, ya know."

"Spike, for the last time, I'm not his girl. He made his decision."

Spike flashed her a confused glance before asking, "What decision was that?"

Myst only rolled her eyes and added, "Nothing, just forget it." She really just didn't want to talk about it. In all honesty, she needed to stop thinking about him all together. Obviously, all that accomplished was pain, heartache, and migraines. Putting Spot far from mind. Myst enjoyed the rest of her afternoon spent with Spike. He always managed to keep her uplifted. She didn't understand why Spot had told her to stay away from him, he was so sweet. Not to mention way less drama inducing

*

It was nearing lunch by the time Spot finally reached Manhattan. After surveying his environment for a short time, he quickly caught sight of Racetrack heading in the direction of Central Park. When he called the boy's name out, Race froze in place, fear etching his entire face.

Trying to suppress a grin at Race's sudden demeanor shift, Spot sauntered over. He trusted what Myst had said about her relationship with Race, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the torment he was inflicting.

"Yo, Race. Where's ya leader?"

"Spot? What are ya doin over here?

Keeping his answers as ambiguous as always, Spot settled on, "Just tell me where he is."

After five minutes of internal struggle on Race's part, he ultimately announced that Jack was back at the lodging house. Trying to figure out what in the world Jack was doing spending the day lounging in the lodging house, Spot took off, despite Race's attempts to verbally stop him.

When he entered, he nodded to Kloppman who was behind the desk doing god knows what. Kloppman had pointed up the stairs, as if knowing what Spot was going to ask. So Spot headed upstairs to find Jack sprawled out on his bunk.

"Hey, Jacky-boy. We need to talk."

Confused at who was waking him up, Jack slowly lifted his head to catch Spot entering from the stairwell. "Spot, look. If it's about yesterday, I had nothing to do with it."

For the first time, Spot noticed just why it was that Jack was laying in bed still. Jack had a very brutal black eye and from the look of it, his arm was pretty banged up. It was wrapped up in a make-shift sling which draped over his shoulders.

"What happened to ya Cowboy? Get in a fight with a horse?" In reality, Spot knew where the damage had come from. But saying anything less than sarcastic at the moment, would only showcase his growing guilt from not going to help the other night.

"Hey, you should see the other guy," Jack retorted back.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure ya gave him a good scratch."

"What are ya doin here, Spot?" Jack asked, resting his head back on the pillow.

"I said we need to talk," Spot proclaimed in a very nonchalant manner.

"Like I said, I didn't have nothin to do with it."

"Ya boys beat up one of my kids," anger was dancing at the edges of Spot's voice, but for the moment, he was keeping his tone light.

"Yeah, well I seem to remember ya boys startin it with Slide and Arrow," Jack replied coyly.

"Yeah, well I'm here to finish it," Spot stated, fighting back the smile beginning to grow from Jack's panic stricken face.

"What are ya talkin about?"

"Look, you don't wanna fight, so I came up with a plan." Spot climbed up on the bunk beside Jack's and took a seat.

*

Night had begun to fall and Myst was on her way back from Angermeier's with some soup for Sprint. She had officially taken it upon herself to make sure this kid got better. She felt hugely responsible for what had happened to him. If she hadn't asked Spot to send some one, he never would have gotten hurt. The good news was that he was now more conscious then last night. So this time she was able to get the full story from him.

Apparently, he made it in to Manhattan and found out Jack was ok. He was able to fight him off long enough for Myst to escape, then managed to knock their father down for the count. Jack made it back safely with only one black eye, and a twisted up arm. However, when Sprint began to head out, he claims he was jumped by Kid Blink and Arrow. Myst couldn't remember ever meeting Arrow, but that didn't sound anything like the Blink she knew. He had always been so sweet to her. Myst tried to convince Sprint that maybe he was mistaken, like he saw the wrong person, but the boy stood by what he saw.

Either way, Myst was beginning to like Sprint. He was completely hilarious. Not to mention, a huge smart ass. One talent that Myst always seemed to have a soft spot for. Physically fighting, she could hold her own, verbal fighting.. now that is something she prided herself on.

After she finished recapping with Sprint, she began to ask around the lodging house about Spot's whereabouts. Oddly enough, no one knew where he was, point in fact, no one remembered seeing him all day.

"Hey, maybe he's with a new girl," some one shouted out.

"Nah. Ya know he'd never spent a whole day with some chick," someone else replied.

For some reason, she didn't understand why, the continued conversation about Spot with other girls was pissing her off. Okay. That's a lie. She knew why. But she also knew she had to forget about him, She needed to hear what all the newsies were jabbering about so she could pull her heart away from him. Yet, regardless, she found her feet dragging themselves away to her room.

She glanced around her room, but nothing about it's meager state would cheer her up. She decided the most logical thing to do, was to had up to the roof. It wasn't until she got up to the top, sat down on the bench, and looked over to the empty seat, that she began to realize this was one of her dumbest decisions ever. Thoughts of Spot came rushing in, the night they met being the most compelling. As she leaned her head back and shut her eyes, she stopped fighting them, and soon began to embrace the memories. She could see his glowing face sitting next to her against the wall. She could feel the texture of the brick against her skin, smell the dusk aroma of his skin radiating nearby. Even his voice sounded crystal clear inside her mind.

"_Mind if I join ya?"_

"_Got a name?"_

"_Scott. You?"_

"_Emma."_

"_Well, Emma, pleasure to meet you."_

She felt the sensational tingling running through her system, even though she was alone. She relaxed back into the bench, sighing at the bitter-sweet memory. When Myst finally resigned to opening her eyes, complete shock nearly over-ran her system. Spot was standing directly in front of her, with a huge smirk plastered on his face.

"Spot?! What the hell is wrong with you?" she shrieked out.

"Hey, not my fault ya didn't say nothin when I called ya name," he moved over to take a seat beside her on the bench.

"What the heck are you talking about? I never heard to come up here?" shock finally beginning to ware out of her body.

"Emm, ya wouldn't have heard if a boat crashed into the buildin. So what's goin on in that mind of yours?"

She sent him a dead-pan glare before choosing to ignore his question completely. "So where have you been all day?"

"Why did ya miss me?" Honestly Myst was to the point of wanting to smack that smirk right off of his face. Here she had spent the entire day wondering about him and upset at last night's event, yet he was in a perfectly good mood and wanting to joke around with her no less.

"Cut the crap, Spot. You left early as all hell, you didn't even bother to tell anyone where you went, and you-"

"Woah, woah, woah. Just calm down a minute," he interrupted, smirk still ever present on his face. "I went to Manhattan."

"Spot!" Whatever anger had been brewing inside her, now bubbled over twofold.

"Hey, remember how I said to calm down.."

"Well that's a little hard to do when you completely ignored my request!" she stated back.

"Well why don't ya try hearin me out before ya jump down my throat," sighing in annoyance at his supercilious behavior, she slumped back against the bench and waved her hand in a signal for him to continue. Even still, Spot waited a moment to see if she was planning on interrupting him. After accepting that fact that she intended to remain silent, he finally continued, "I went to talk to Jack about all the bad business goin on between Brooklyn an Manhattan. Just talk, I promise," he quickly added as he noticed her eyes narrowing in on him. "We came up with a solution to solve this little issue."

"Really?" she finally inserted. "Wait.. what are you guys planning?"

"We's gonna throw a party. Over here in Brooklyn."

"A party," she asked in a blank manner. "You're kidding, right?"

"Nah. Brooklyn an Manhattan have always been close. I think things just been blown up from stress lately. A party will break the ice, get our guys talkin again."

"A party," she repeated in the same blank manner. "You mean to tell me that a few drinks, a little music, and all is forgotten."

"Man, I thought ya'd be happy about this, Emm," Spot said, his manor slightly deflated.

"No. Don't get me wrong. I'm happy! I just didn't think a party would be the way to go," Myst stated, laughter beginning to escape her mouth. Tried as she did, she couldn't find a way to stay mad at Spot for long

"Hey, we're newsies. Give us some beer and all is forgiven," he replied, the smirk beginning to grow back on his face as he placed an arm around her shoulder.

"No. Give you beer and you only turn denser."

**A/N : **Ok, ok. I know. Incredibly short chapter. I'm sorry the update took so long. I had to focus on a report for my English class. But the next few chapters will be the party and tons of action! I posted images of the newspaper headline I used as well as the menu for Angermeier's (a real Brooklyn restaurant that was around in 1900) in my profile… for anyone who is as much of a nerd as me. GO NERDS!

Thank you so much:

Cailin Baire Conlon: Your encouragement is amazing!

Eavis: Thank you so much for pointing out certain things to me. I otherwise never would have noticed them so I appreciated it immensely.

XxxEFreakxxX: lol. Trust me when I say, you will be happy in the end.

MushSpotGirl: Thank you so much for every review!

Huffle-Bibin: I promise you, Snap is coming. Please don't kill me yet!


	13. Perparations

**Chapter 13 : Preparations**

-Manhattan-

Jack sat on his top bunk rubbing his head. For the past thirty minutes, his guys had been arguing with him about his announcement, and it seemed they didn't plan on stopping any time soon.

"Jack, come on. It's a trap," Boots called out.

"You know Spot wouldn't just drop it," Itey added.

"Yeah. This don't add up," Mush offered.

"Like I said, it's a trap. They plannin on jumpin us once we get there," Boots proclaimed.

Sighing in frustration, Jack threw his hand up to stop everyone. But seeing as how this was his fifth attempt, he wasn't shocked when the arguing still continued forth.

"What did Spot say exactly?" Race asked. So far Race had been the only one not arguing. Oddly, he had been sitting quietly throughout the whole debate.

Jack waited a few minutes, looking around to see if anyone planned on interrupting him yet again. Settling on the fact that everyone was staring at him intensely waiting for a response, he finally began to relate his conversation with Spot, "He said he was ready for this stupid fight to be over, thought maybe a party would be a good ice breaker-"

"That don't sound like Spot," Skittery interrupted.

It was nearly a full five minutes of blurted correspondence before Jack could speak again. He was beginning to wonder just how it was that Spot managed to hold so much control over the Brooklyn newsies. But after concluding that he would never want to hold so much control over his own men, he reclined to waiting patiently until a quiet stent where he could speak again. He was so lost in thoughts of his leadership tactics, he barely noticed the room had fallen silent. He glanced around, trying to figure out where the quiet came from, only to find everyone staring at him.

"You guys all done?" he questioned, annoyance fresh in his voice. After a series of nods and murmurs of agreements, he concluded his earlier speech. "Look, Spot was right about one thing. Manhattan an Brooklyn have always been allies. All this bickerin, it's gotten blown up outta pro-portion."

"Blown up? Ya think him punchin my eye out is blown up?" Blink called out.

"You an Arrow beat up one of his guys. A kid no less. He coulda came over here to finish the job he did on ya face," Jack replied casually.

"Maybe then ya'd be able to get a date Kid," someone called out.

A series of laughter filled the room as Blink began chasing Itey around the room with a towel. Jack allowed a small smile to find it's way to his face, but his full grown headache would not allow anything more.

Taking note that at least the tightness in the air had seemed to lessen, Jack continued after Blink was finished running after Itey, "I think it's time we just put all this nonsense behind us."

A few people moaned and groaned, but for the most part, they all seemed to accept what Jack had told them. Deciding his headache was going no where fast, Jack laid down on his bunk to take yet another nap. He would need all his strength saved up for tomorrow night.

*

-Brooklyn-

Spot woke up and headed into the bunkroom to make sure all his boys woke up. Unlike Manhattan, Brooklyn lodging house didn't have a proprietor, not in the full sense. There was an aging sailor who owned the building. He was constantly gone and usually only made an appearance once a month to collect rent. Patrick, as was his name, left everything in Spot's control. Spot loved this complete independence, aside from where it left him charge of ensuring the others all got up on time.

"Snake, Magger, Jokes.. get up." He grumbled to the three nearest bunks. As he saw the three boys begin to stir he added in, "Tell everyone to meet me outside, we need to talk," as he began heading back to his washroom.

Myst was already occupying it. She was the one person he never had to wake up. She had some weird internal clock thingy that he could never understand. If it wasn't for the actual clock in his bedroom ringing in his ear every morning, he'd sleep until lunch time. He reached over and grabbed her hair brush, grazed it through his own locks a few times before exchanging her for his toothbrush. It always seemed odd to him that they could carry out their morning ritual without speaking a word.

As he finished up, he grabbed his effects and headed out to meet with his guys. Only a few had made it out before him, but it wasn't much longer until the rest followed suit. Once everyone had gathered around he announced, "Manhattan's comin over tonight. We's throwin a party."

"A party? But them scabbers beat up Sprint!" someone called out.

Spot glared down his newsies before barking out, "It's over. Party's tonight, anyone got any problem with that?"

Within a few seconds, the Brooklyn newsies where shaking their heads 'no'. Nodding slightly that they had appeased his request, Spot began heading out to the distribution center, his newsies behind in tow.

*

-Manhattan-

It was nearing late afternoon and the attitude in the Manhattan lodging house had completely changed from the night before. As newsies were running about getting ready, a general excitement had begun to fill the air. Brooklyn was always known to throw the best parties, and many were looking forward to tonight's promised relief from day to day repetition.

Jack noticed a few hanging about who still seemed slightly hesitant about the night to come. He had to admit, this was highly out-of-character for Spot. However, he choose not to dwell on whatever brought about the change. In all honesty, he never wanted any problems with Brooklyn. They were a good team to have on your side should anything serious come about. Not to mention, Spot was really helping him out by taking care of Myst for him.

Jack was literally torn when it came to his sister. He had spent so many years wondering how she was, where she was, why she wasn't visiting. Jack had begun to think that she had grown to hate him for leaving her. Then nearly two months after he is reconciled with her, he had to send her away. He knew it was for the best, he knew that she was safer the longer she stayed there. But no matter what his brain told him, it felt as though he was abandoning her all over again. It didn't help him that he didn't fully trust Spot. He knew Spot could protect her, but with his reputation with women.. let's just say that the sooner Jack could have her back in Manhattan, the better he would feel.

He managed to knock his father out cold the other night, but he couldn't quite guarantee that would be enough to make him stay away. For all Jack could reason, now that his father knew he was here as well, his father could double in anger. Blink had claimed to have seen his dad lurking around with two other men one night. But again, Jack couldn't get much more information than that. All he knew was that the man was planning something, he just didn't know what.

It was nearing time to start heading out, and a few of the newsies had begun gathering downstairs in the lobby. Jack decided to push thoughts of his father far from his mind and join them. Within ten minutes, everyone had assembled to head out.

"Hey Mush, ya seen Race at all today?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. He's going to meet us there. Said he had somethin to do in Harlem," Mush replied.

Not having the slightlest clue what business Race could have over there, Jack settled to nodding. He felt that maybe he should know, so he thought asking would make him seem dumb. Nevertheless, if Race was meeting them there, he could just ask him himself once they arrived.

*

-Harlem-

Race had been strolling the streets of Harlem for the past two hours. Brooklyn always managed to get a few "working girls" to show up to every party they hosted. It was something about Spot's need to top everyone else. Mostly the girls just came because of Spot. Either they had been with him before, or they wanted to have a chance with him. In the end, they'd honestly settle on any newsie they could get.

This time, Race wanted to bring someone who actually mattered. Someone special. Someone he couldn't find the courage to even talk to. So here he was, still strolling around the streets, trying to convince himself he had the courage.

Race was always so sure of himself. He could talk his way in to or out of anything. Yet for some reason, whenever Snap was nearby, words simply just stopped forming. The first few times he had met her, he merely thought it was a fluke. Then he slowly began to notice the way her soft auburn hair would dance around her in waves. The way her hazel eyes would lighten everytime she smiled. The small crinkle of her nose whenever she would begin to get angry. He knew from that moment, he was hooked. The only problem was that without being able to form a comprehensible sentence whenever she was nearby, tended to leave him looking like a dope.

He had caught sight of her selling nearly an hour ago and had been trailing her ever since. In his mind, he refuse to call it stalking because that just sounded dirty. So in point, he was trailing her. He noticed she had tied her hair back with a long black ribbon and everytime the wind blew, she was left to brushing the ribbon from her face. Each time, her annoyance grew. Of course this only appealed to Race more and more. Her nose began to crinkle as she irritably tried tucking the ribbon into her hat. As she shoved her hat back down it happened. She caught sight of Race. He tried to duck behind a nearby set of steps but it was too late. A few seconds later, he felt a sharp tapping on his shoulders.

"Race? What are ya doin here?" she asked, anger exhibiting in her voice.

"Oh, Snap? Um. Hi. Wha-what brings you," he stumbled out before completing, "here." As he said this he mental beat the crap out of himself. _Come on man! Pull it together!!_

"Race. I live here," Snap stated back expressionless, though humor was barking its way into her brain.

"Yeah. I knew that," Race laughed humorlessly. "So. Um. I was just wonderin, it's not a big deal really, but, are ya fr-ee tonight?" he cringed as if expecting her to laugh in his face. Honestly he would laugh in his face were he a thrid party right now.

"Why? Ya askin me out on a date?" Snap asked, but Race notice there was no repulsion in her voice which he choose to take as a promising sign.

"Well, kinda. Brooklyn is throwin a party tonight."

"Wait, what? Since when? Why hasn't anyone told me?" she was confused and Race instantly knew why. Typically, if Manhattan was invited, Harlem would always go as well. The two were so close in location, that a bond had formed between them.

"Nah. It's- it's like a party to bring Brooklyn an Manhattan back to good terms, so-so it's just us."

Snap nodded in understanding before letting a smile grow on her face, "Well I would love to go with ya." She glanced down at her attire before adding, "But first I gotta change." She grabbed Race's elbow and began dragging him back to her lodging house. Every happy moment Race could remember, didn't even come close to how he felt as she dragged him along the street.

When they got inside, Snap told him to wait in the lobby as she headed up to change. It wasn't like she had a huge variety to choose from, but anything was better then the clothes she had been selling in all day. Amazingly, she was able to find a plain white blouse that wasn't incredibly wrinkled. She paired it with a long plain green skirt, or what once was a green skirt. The poor fabric was so worn that the color had begun to fade to a dim myrtle, but it fit her nicely. After combing through her hair a few times, she settled on retying it into a long ponytail..this time triple wrapping her ribbon so it would finally stay out of her face. She couldn't believe Race had finally gotten the courage to ask her out. It had taken every ounce of her strength not to blush like a mad fool when he was stumbling through earlier.

As she headed down stairs, Race caught sight of her. Had he not already been sitting in a chair, he would have fallen over right then and there. He quickly jumped up and rushed over to her.

"Snap, ya look amazing!" he reached for her out stretched hand and smoothly brough it to his lips. Or at least he hoped it was smooth. He couldn't tell if she could feel him shaking or not. Trying to keep up the sauve gentleman act, he offer her his arm.

Snap laughed at the thought of Race trying to be gentleman, but gracefully accepted his arm. "Yeah, ya better say that or I'll soak ya," she said while flashing him a wink. "Come on, let's go show Brooklyn who's in charge." Race couldn't wipe the grin from his face to save his life.

*

-Brooklyn-

Myst, Spot, Spike, and Magger had taken it upon themselves to set up for the night, choosing to fore-go selling papes. Although Myst really wasn't entirely sure how Spot was helping. He claimed he was going for the entertainment and left shortly before lunchtime. Honestly, she just figured he was copping out from doing any work. But seeing as how Spike and Magger weren't complaining, she decided not to worry about it either.

So far they had managed to pull together enough money from the other newsies to buy more cheap beer then Myst had ever seen. They sent Myst over to Angermeier's to pick up some stuff the owner was donating. Apparently he always gave them some day-old bread with a few butter trays for their gatherings. She surprisingly made it all the way to the lodging house without tripping once. For her, this was a miracle.

When she arrived, she heard the boys upstairs doing what sounded like moving beds. She glance around the downstairs lobby and figured she could handle it on her own. Unlike in the Manhattan lodging house, there was no counter desk. Instead there rested a large circular table with a few chairs around it. Myst played with the notion of making this a serving table, but that thought was quickly dismissed by the knowledge that they'd probably want to use it to play poker. She settled on finding a much smaller table hidden in a closet under the stairs. She used shirt to wipe it as clean as possible before laying out some bread and butter atop it, placing a case of beer near the foot.

As she grabbed the rest of the "banquet" and headed up stairs and into the bunkroom, she found that Spike and Magger were indeed moving the bunks around to make more room. Astonishingly, the room cleared up well. The huge open space now occupying the center of the room, almost looked depressing though.

"Don't worry, will be addin tables up here too," Spike suggested when he noticed the look on her face.

"But there are no more tables aside from the one downstairs." Unless they were concealing them in some hidden closet, which Myst highly doubted.

"No worries. We just use crates from out back," Magger spoke. This must have been the first time Myst had ever heard the boy speak because she was immdiately drawn to his accent. It was honestly like nothing she had ever heard before. It reminded her of the English accent one of her tutors once spoke with, yet it was somehow different. "I'm from Australia. Moved here with me mum back in 95. She carked durin the trip ova. Been a newsie eva since," he added hasty to save her from asking the questions forming in her mind. Obviously he gets asked that a lot, and obviously it annoyed him.

Myst nodded in acceptance of his story and decided not to press further. Besides, she had no earthly idea what the heck 'carked' meant. The three headed outside to start collecting crates. Myst had to argue with Spike because he felt she didn't need to do any heavy-lifting. She had to bite the urge to punch him in the nose for being sexist. Either way, the "tables" were brought up the stairs and set in place. Magger grabbed a few blankets from nearby bunks and began drapping them over the crates, causing Myst and Spike to share a look.

"Magger. It's a bunch of guys getting drunk, you don't need to make it look Prospect Hall," Myst teased.

"Yeah, yeah. See who's whinging when you try tossin two up on the crate tops," he retorted.

Myst shot Spike a very confused look to which he only shrugged his shoulders. She knew Magger was speaking English, but she was beginning to see why he was also so quiet. You could only understand half of what the boy said. After laying out the remaining bread, butter, and beer, Myst departed to her room to prepare.

She had earlier lain out her original clothing she wore when she came to New York near three months ago. It was odd how she almost missed the fitted blouses and skirts from her past. She washed up as best she could using the small bowl on top her dresser. When she finally slipped into her old lace trimmed white blouse and dark blue skirt, it felt like she was stepping into someone else's life. Though she wasn't quite sure if she missed that life as much anymore as she once did. Putting the thoughts far from mind, she quickly tied the deep blue satin sash around her waist and began to loosely braid her hair. She could hear the adjacent bunkroom begin to slowly fill and she was sure Spot would be somewhere nearby.

**A/N :** I hope you guys like how everything is going so far. I'm still debating if I want to stop this story after the end of the party and continue in sequal. Or if I want to lengthen this one out to cover everything that would be in the first sequal and save the third for it's own story. Heck, I might just add the complete second and third parts of the story all into this one story. It'd ended up being extremely long, but saves you all from having to search for the sequals lol. Bah… who knows. Anyways, hope you all enjoy. And as always, thank you all so much for your support!

**Mageger Translations:** ;)

mum - mom

carked - died

whinging (whinge) - complain

two up - an Australian game where you toss 2-3 coins in the air and place bets on how they will land


	14. The Party

**Chapter 14: The Party**

**A/N : **So here it is! It's a little long, and there is tons of dialogue. If anyone finds it a little hard to follow, please let me know. I tried my best to not have "Spot said", "Myst said", "Spot said" before/after each quote… Anyways… Hope you enjoy and don't kill me!

By the time Myst was finished tweaking her attire for the tenth time, she finally decided to head out to the party. She couldn't quite understand why, but for some reason butterflies were attacking her stomach. Maybe it was just her worrying about how the night would turn out. With things so tense between Brooklyn and Manhattan, things could turn even uglier with the added effects of alcohol. Maybe it was due to the fact that none of the Brooklyn newsies had yet seen her dressed up nicely. More specifically Spot. Maybe it was the actuality that her two worlds were going to collide. Particularly her relationship, or whatever one would call it, with Spot. If Jack were to ever get even a notion of the matter, would he ever forgive her for lying? Would he attack Spot? Whatever the exact cause of her anxiety, she couldn't shake it.

When she entered the bunkroom, see could hardly believe her eyes. What had once been a barren empty shell of a room, was now filled to the brim with newsies. She noticed quite a few wanton females intermingling about, tempting the boys like walking eye candy. It vaguely reminded her of her old brothel, causing a small smile to fill her face. At least she wouldn't be forced to be the only female in a room full of drunk, horny teenaged men.

Without even realizing it, she found herself searching the room for Spot. However, probably due to the complete over crowding, he was no where to be found. So lost in her search, she ran head on into a hard brick wall. After regaining her footing, she assimilated that it was not a brick wall, but Magger.

He whipped around with anger to see who had knocked into him. When his eyes landed on a bashful Myst, he glanced over her a few times in mild shock before saying, "G'day, Sheila, You're a beaut outta your daks." He winked down at her confused look.

"Magger, I think you've already had too much to drink. My name is Myst, not Sheila," Myst replied, before slapping the boy in good humor on the shoulder. Magger went to say something back, but the noise level in the room changed to bolstering. From the sound of it, something amazing was happening towards the center of the room. Magger turned to Myst, gave her a simple shrug then grabbed her hand. With his tall stature leading the way, the pair of them were able to easily maneuver their way to the middle.

Apparently, some one had dragged a few of the crate tables together to make a much longer table-top. It seemed a high stakes poker game was in process. Myst immediately began searching the table's participants, hoping she would be able to find Race among them. Three guys in, she noticed Spot, and he wasn't alone. One of the working girls had situated herself directly on top of his lap, and he didn't appear to be moving her anytime soon.

Fire, rage, fury. All these emotions and more began to flood through Myst. Her chest literally felt as though it was caving in on her. The jealousy strangling her, stealing her last bit a breath. She turned to leave when she heard someone sneer out in her direction.

"Awww, look Spotty. You have your self an admirer."

Myst slowly turned to face 'the whore'. She momentarily allowed a glimpse in Spot's direction to see shame etching his face. But the damage had already been done. "Awww, look. _Spotty_ found himself wench," Myst related over to Magger while never once removing her eyes from the girl. After a brief stare off between the two girls, Myst turned to leave when once again, the girl caused her to stop in her place.

"Ya just jealous?" her voice raising to an annoying shrill.

But now, Myst's anger was beginning to have fun with the little game. Leave it to Myst to turn anything into sarcasm. She glanced the girl up and down a few time before barking out a laugh and asking, "Of what?" humor coating her face. At lease that way, no one would see how much she was hurting inside.

"That _I_ get to be with him," the girl announced proudly.

In the best fake enthusiastic tone she could manage, Myst declared, "Oh Congratulations! Would you like a medal?" She then allowed her false smile to drop, placing an emotionless mask in its place.

"You can be as snide as ya want. He still choose me. He told me I was special," the girls face was glowing in superiority. Strangely the surrounding area all fell silent, waiting to see Myst's reaction. Most of the Brooklyn newsies had either seen or heard of her events with Anthony on the pier. Not to mention, quite a few of them could sense the bond between her and Spot, no matter how hard they fought it. Spot, on the other hand, was sending the girl an are-you-crazy look.

Myst placed both hands on the table separating them and leaned in close as though to whisper something serious. "Honey, there is nothing special about having syphilis," Myst stated in a taunt. As the crowd around them began erupting in laughter, Myst pushed away from the table and walked away. This time she didn't stop. Even though every muscle in her body was screaming to know what Spot's reaction was, she never once glanced back.

Oddly the further away from Spot she got, the more furious she became. Myst was practically screaming at those around her to move, get out of her way. She even pushed quite a few, just for the simple satisfaction of physically hurting someone. Something she much wanted to do to Spot at the moment. But Mr. Random-Guy-In-Arms-Length would have to do.

By the time she made it near the hallway, someone actually had the guts to grab her shoulder in an attempt to stop her. Myst turned around, planning on punching whoever it was. Her arm stopped in mid-air as she realized it was Race. She flung her arms around him, pulling him in as tight as possible.

"Race! I'm so glad you're here! I really need someone to talk to." As she pulled away, she reached for Race's hand to drag him to an area where they could talk more privately. However, Race's hand was already occupied. Myst looked over to notice Snap for the very first time.

"Snap? Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. Wait-" Myst glanced between the two newsies, an actual smile growing by the minute. She slapped Race gently in the face while teasing, "So you finally asked her out. I'm proud of ya."

Race's face instantly became drenched in crimson as Snap added in, "Yeah I know. Took him long enough!"

"Alright already. So Imma bit slow. I get it," Race called out to the two girls.

"_Slow_ is one way to describe you," Myst mocked, implying Race to be dense.

"I couldn't agree more," said Snap as she picked on Race as well. "So we saw ya lil performance earlier. What was all that about?" she asked towards Myst, ignoring Race's bogus indignant from the two girls teasing.

Myst rolled her eyes, not wanting Race to figure out how she truly felt about Spot. "Ugh, nothing. Just some trollop trying to get smart with me."

"Oh. Yeah. Because it _so_ had nothin to do with Spot," Race teased.

Myst reached over a gently punched Race on the arm. "Yeah right. He wishes."

"Ummhmm," Race retorted, obviously not buying Myst's lie.

"Oh shut up you." Myst glanced around, hoping Jack wasn't around to see her 'performance', as Snap had called it, as well. That is when she noticed, she hadn't yet seen any other Manhattan newsie. "Hey Race, where is the rest of Manhattan?"

"Nice change of subject," he sent her a wink which she choose to ignore. "They probably on there way."

*

Darkness had already well coated the city by the time Manhattan reached the lodging house. Sarah and David had met them along the way and Sarah was now clung to Jack's arm as though scared someone would attack. Jack decided not to point out the fact that hardly anyone would jump a group of about fifty newsboys. He enjoyed her closely linked to him.

When they entered, Jack could instantly tell that tonight was going to be a good night. The party was roaring as all of Brooklyn mingled about. At first, the two groups seemed slightly hesitant, but within a few moments, all that faded. A smile found it's way to his face as combinations between Brooklyn and Manhattan started forming. He had to hand it to Spot, this was his best idea yet.

He began to head upstairs to locate Spot, let he know that they had arrived, when someone called out to him. Jack turned to see Jokes sitting at a large round table dealing in a fresh hand of poker.

"Yo Jack. Come over here so I can win ya money," Jokes tempted. _Well, Spot can wait. One round won't last too long._

*

Snap and Race had headed off a few minutes ago to dance, leaving Myst all alone in the corner of the room. From where she stood, she could see Spot still playing cards over at the large table. Though it thankfully appeared as though he kicked the girl off his lap, she was still furious at him. It wasn't merely just that he had chosen a whore over her, it was that he choose _everyone_ over her. He was constantly pushing her away. In all honesty, she couldn't tell whether she was more mad at him for his actions, or her for being mad at his actions. _I need to forget about him. He obviously has no problem forgetting me._

As she drifted aimlessly through her thought processes, she barely noticed the man standing in front of her. It wasn't until he blocked her glare on Spot's head that she actually took any notice at all really. Myst glanced up to see a newsies she had never met before. He stood nearly 5'10 with dark black hair and very interesting green eyes.

He lifted a hand towards her while saying, "Hi. Names Spade."

Myst accepted his hand while adding in a simple "Myst." She wasn't particularly in the mood for anyone at the moment.

"Myst? Where have I heard that name before?" he asked more to himself than her. "Oh wait! Ya Jack's sister ain't ya!"

Myst nodded slightly. She had no idea who this guy was, but she found it odd he had heard of her before. "Where you from? She asked, suspicion filling her.

"Manhattan, just started there a few weeks ago." He supplied.

"Hmm. No wonder I've never heard of you." _'Two weeks? No wonder I haven't heard about you before.'_ Spot's voice played in her head. _Ugh! Get out of my head damn you!_ She shook her head, wondering why she was talking to the voices in her head.

"So why ya all alone in the corner?" he asked, ignoring her comment.

"Just not in the best of moods," she replied. She glanced over and noticed Spot sending death glares in her direction. _Serves him right _she thought.

"Well. I know the best way to solve that," Spade stated. He reached down for her hand and began leading her out to the make-shift dancing area. Every part of her wanted to pull away, but the ever so satisfying glare on Spot's face drove her forward.

*

Jack had ultimately given into playing two rounds before finally excusing himself. He grabbed Sarah's hand and began escorting her up the stairs to find Spot. When he finally reached the bunkroom, he noticed a few Brooklyn newsies standing about watching something intently.

"Yo Spike, what's goin on?" Jack asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

Spike turned and greeted Jack before letting a smirk form on his mouth. "Somethin very interestin is about to go down," Jack followed Spike's nod in the direction of Spot. Jack paused for a moment to gather the scene. Spot was sitting at a large table made of crates and bed cloths, though he was no longer focused on the game at hand. Instead he was glaring across the room, a look of rage deep in his eyes. Jack suppress a grin, feeling sorry for the poor chap who was about to endure Spot's wrath. But as he followed Spot's glare, his stomach hit the floor. Spot was scowling at Myst. Jack moved to step in when he felt Spike's arm stopping him.

"Nah, Cowboy. You should probably watch this." Jack turned to see a very self-satisfying gleam in Spike's eyes. _What is going on here?_

*

Spade wasn't just a bad dancer, he was terrible. Myst's toes were probably bleeding by now and twice already, she had to remove his hands from unwanted areas. Just as she was beginning to think this whole make-Spot-jealous thing was a bad idea, Spade abruptly stopped dancing. Myst looked over to find Spot inches away, glowering up at Spade.

"Can I help ya?" Spade ask, probably a bit harsher than he intended.

"Mind tellin me what ya think ya doin?" Spot barked out.

"Dancin with my girl, Myst, here. Gotta problem with that." Spade spat out.

Instantly, Spot's eyes narrowed into severe slits. "What did ya just say?"

Before things could get dangerous, Myst interjected, "Spot, we were just dancing. Calm down."

Suddenly Spade dropped his hands from Myst's waistline and backed up a few steps, "S-Sp-Spot? As in S-Spot Conlon?" fear began registering across Spade's face.

Spot's face relaxed slightly into a smug countenance, but aggravation was now playing across Myst's as she rolled her eyes. "Oh you have GOT to be kidding me!" she exhaled out. _I'm I the only one with the guts to stand up to Spot? MEN! No back bones, I swear!_

"Yeah, I'm Spot. Care to tell me why ya dancin with her?" Spot snarled.

"Maybe because he wanted to, Spot." Myst argued.

Spade, however, looked more like he was going to pee his pants. "No, no. I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't know." He threw his hands in the air as a defensive mechanism as he backed away further. Once he thought he was out of attack range, Spade took off into the crowd leaving Myst utterly baffled.

She turned to face Spot, throwing daggers with her eyes, "What the hell was that about?!"

"Why don't you tell me?" he retorted back.

"I was just dancing!" she exasperatedly replied back.

"I don't care. Do you even know that guy?"

"Yeah, his name was Spade. Not like you would know seeing as how you ran him off before even thinking of asking him!" Their voices were steadily rising, or maybe it was just due to the growing silence of the room.

"Oh cause I'm the only one runnin people off! You nearly jumped down Amber's throat earlier."

Figuring Amber was the whore from earlier, Myst shouted back, "Hey! She started it! She jumped down my throat as I was walking by! You went out of your way to come over here to attack Spade!"

"I had my reasons!" Spot screamed.

This unusual outward display of Spot's anger would cause most people to run in fear. He was commonly so subtle about his rage, only letting his eyes show his true emotion. But Myst's fire had been lit and nothing was stopping her, not even Jack who hid in the corner watching. "Well why don't you share them with me!" she yelled.

"I shouldn't have to! You should know already!"

"News flash, Spot! I have no clue! I never have any clue when it comes to you! So why don't you spell it out for me!" Myst barked out, exasperation filling in her voice as she threw her arms up in frustration.

"Because you belong with ME!" Spot shouted. What little murmuring that was still traveling about the room instantly stopped. Myst's eyes flew wide open in utter shock. Spot quickly realized what he just shouted and tried to correct himself by lowering his voice slightly and stating, "I-I mean _to_ me. You belong _to_ me."

Though the room remained silent, Myst's shock had been replacing once again with anger at Spot's choice of correction. "I belong _to_ you?! I belong to no one you arrogant prick," venom lacing her words.

No one had ever called Spot an 'arrogant prick' and got away with it. "You're in Brooklyn! I own Brooklyn!!" rage pulsating through him.

"Oh really? Because last time I checked, the sign didn't read "Welcome to Brooklyn. Owned and Operated by Spot Conlon," Myst was quick to retort.

"Ya one of my newsies. That means ya gotta do what I say," Spot declared, his voice no longer a shout but still edged with ferocity.

"First of all, I'm not 'one of your newsies'. I'm only here temporarily, and the sooner I can leave.. the better," Myst spat out before adding, "And second of all, since when does that give you the right to dictate who I do or do not date?!"

"I use to have that right." Spot sneered.

"Yeah, well you gave up that right, _remember_!" Myst scorned back at him. But she was no longer able to take any of this. She shoved him hard enough to cause him to fall over. Before he could right himself, she quickly marched over to her bedroom and slammed the door, locking the party and a certain Spot Conlon behind her.

*

Jack stayed in his spot as the entire scene played out. As he watched Myst slam the door to her room, his eyes turned to Spot and narrowed. He felt Sarah wrench her hand from his grasp, apparently complaining because he was hurting her, but none of that mattered. Jack could register Spike still standing beside him chuckling, but his rage was preventing him from acting.

"So Cowboy, ain't ya glad ya stuck around for the show?" Spike whispered, humor alight on his face.

Jack turned slowly to face the boy, not understanding what was so funny, but also not saying a word.

Spike, figuring Jack's emotion, let a smirk fill his face as he added, "Just thought ya wanna know what happens when ya not around," an evil glint pouring from his eyes.

"Myst! Open up!" Jack whipped his head to see Spot banging on Myst's door. This time Spike didn't try and stop him. But before he could cross the room, Spot had disappeared into a door a few feet down the hall. Jack rushed over to where Spot entered, unfortunately the door was now also locked.

*

Spot rushed into his room when Myst refused to answer her door. Thankfully, she didn't have the initiative to also lock the door to his room. Not wanting to be interrupted, he quickly locked his door and rushed through the bathroom. When he entered her room she was pacing back and forth. As her eyes landed on him, she grabbed a brown leather book and tossed it at his head.

"Get Out Spot!" Myst screamed, she wasn't ready to talk to him yet.

"No! We need to talk, Now," he forcefully bit out.

See as how he wasn't leaving, Myst grabbed the pillow off her bed and tossed it at him as well. Of course, since a book did little good, a pillow sure as hell wasn't going to get the job done. It just felt good to throw things at him. Next came the hat on her bedside table. It would have been followed by the actual bedside table itself had Spot not grabbed hold of both her wrists preventing her from tossing anything else. He turned her around and slammed her into the wall beside the small mirror hanging above her dresser. It wasn't hard enough to hurt her, but she still heard the mirror dislodge from the wall and hit the floor.

She tried to wiggle free, but Spot had managed to pin her pretty tightly. "Let go of me." Myst hissed out.

"Not until we talk," his voice steady and firm.

"Well maybe I don't want to talk to you just yet," Myst spat out.

"Neither do I."

Confusion flooded Myst's face as she started to say, "What-" but before she could continue further, Spot slammed his lips on top of hers. For a moment, Myst didn't respond, in fact she did nothing. Ever so slowly, she began to return the kiss, electricity gushing through her entire body. Spot gripped her waist as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him in as close as she could get him. He turned the two of them around, freeing her from the wall but never once breaking their connection. Myst felt the soft, coolness of her bed sheets encircle around her as Spot gently laid them on her bed. Every second their kiss seemingly became deeper. Want and need merged into one sensation as they both released what hold on separation they may have remaining. For the past three weeks they had been fighting to pull away from one another. Finally, they had stopped fighting.

*

Jack stood outside the door to Spot exited through for a moment, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly he heard crashing and banging coming from Myst's bedroom and he rushed over beside it. The party had begun to pick back up once Spot had departed, so Jack could barely make out what was happening behind the locked door. He leaned his ear against it, striving to find out what was going on, but all he could hear was muted rustlings.

Giving up on being able to decipher what was happening, he banged on the door while calling out, "Myst! It's Jack. Open up!" He was able to hear a loud bang followed by an 'owww' as though someone had tripped inside the room. Jack heard hushed whisperings and anger began to rise inside him. Myst was not alone, and he had a strong feeling he knew who was in there with her.

The door popped open and sure enough Myst was joined with Spot. Spot's face registered his trademark emotionless mask, yet Myst's was coated in fear. Something was going on.

"Jack?! Um.. Wh-when did you get here?" Myst stuttered out.

Jack remained silent and glanced about the room behind her. A pillow, a book, and a hat were sprawled across the floor. Off in a back corner, it looked as though a mirror had been tipped off the wall and a dresser thumped slightly askew. He turned his attention to the bedside table that had been knocked over and then the bed caught his eyes. The sheets had been twisted and crumpled as though recently used. With sparks flying, he glanced Myst over. Her hair was bedridden, but her clothes were only slightly ruffled, as though, thankfully, they had not been removed…yet. He glared over at Spot, correctly suspecting what he had just interrupted. He grabbed Myst's hand tightly and started dragging her from the room while spitting out, "Come on! We are headin back to Manhattan.. NOW!"

Myst spun her head around to plead with Spot. Fear etching her whole face. Spot stepped out of the room and announced, "Ya ain't takin her no where."

Jack froze in his step and whipped around, landing a harsh right blow to Spot's face. Within a matter of seconds, Spot had recovered and dove after Jack. Myst's heart caught in her chest. She didn't know what to do, who to save. But the worst was yet to come. The remaining newsies all began to jump one another, the little tension relief of the party quickly subsiding. Myst screamed out, begging everyone to stop. But no one heard her. It was like her dream all over again, no one even noticed her at all.

Deciding there was nothing left to do, Myst threw herself between Jack and Spot, using the fact that neither would try and hurt her to her advantage. It took nearly a full minute, but she was able to stop them. She screamed out, "Guys! Knock it off! Look around you!!"

Jack and Spot began to acknowledge the full fledged war going on around them. Spot took to physically drawing his newsies from the Manhattan men while Jack climbed atop a nearby bunk and began shouting.

"Manhattan!! Get Out! Party's Over!!"

While Spot and Jack attempted to break everyone up, Myst slumped down the wall and wrapped her arms around her knees. The realization that she would have to let one of the boys go finally began to sink in. Now it was her turn to choose either her brother, or Spot.

**A/N : ** Like I said, please don't hate me! I've been thinking a lot on how I want this story to be told and after listening to your requests, I've decided not to stop after this chapter. I'm shortening my Trilogy down to just a Duo-logy, lol. So fear not, this story will continue.

Special Thanks to huffle-bibin, Eavis, cailin baire conlon, MushSpotgoil, and XxxEFreakxxX for your constant reviews. You guys are always so encouraging.

Also Thank You to elleestJenn and Xscree-ScreeX. I appreciate you guys dropping reviews, it really means the world!


	15. Return

**Chapter 15 : The Return**

**A/N : ** For timeline purposes, this whole chapter is written over the course of a few hours, but looked at from different view points.

*Myst*

It had been two weeks since the Brooklyn party. Two weeks of falling asleep with tears. Every night, Myst drifted to sleep with the last images of Spot she had. He was staring at her with such hurt and betrayal. Her heart had crumbled in that instance, and had still not begun to reform. The only thing she could rationalize, was that she had spent eight years dreaming of reuniting with her brother. She couldn't turn her back on him now.

Jack had dragged her back to Manhattan that night, and every night since, she prayed Spot would come 'rescue' her. Myst only spent one month away, yet Manhattan suddenly seemed like a cage. Every ounce of her being wanted to be back in Brooklyn, back with Spot.

To make matters worst, everyone had begun to treat her differently. Jack would hardly speak to her, and whenever he did, disappointment was evident. Race stopped joking around with her. He had taken a personal offense to the fact she had lied to him. Unlike Jack though, he remained at least some what cordial. As for the rest of Manhattan, they regarded her as a traitor. The war with Brooklyn was over, but hostility was still in the air. Whenever Jack was no where to be found, they would bump into her, glare past her, whisper harsh sentiments. Blink was the worst of all. He truly believed the whole party was still a setup, that Brooklyn intended on jumping them from the beginning. Myst had a strong feeling Blink was not the only newsie to feel this way, but regardless, they all blamed her for what happened..as if she could stop it.

As she sat alone in her room, writing in her trusted journal, her only true friend, it shocked her to hear a faint knock at the door. "Come in?" she called out, wondering who would actually be wanting to talk to her.

It took only a split second and the sound of wood thumping on wood to answer her question. "Heya Myst. Mind if I come in?"

Myst let a smile small come to her face before replying, "Of course not, Crutchy. What's on your mind?" She pulled her knees up to her chest to allow space at the end of the bed for the boy to sit. Crutchy was the only one in Manhattan who _dared_ to speak with her these days. Though she wasn't always exactly sure why. Before she left Manhattan, her and Crutchy hadn't been close. But whatever his reasoning, she enjoyed his company, it was a pleasant break from her own internal monologue.

"Awhh, nothin Myst. Just wonderin why I didn't see ya sellin today? Ya sick?" he asked, true concern in his voice.

Myst sighed and closed her journal before stating, "No. I'm just wallowing in my own _glory_."

Crutchy snickered before patting her gently on the shoulder. "Ya know, my mother used to tell me 'everyone makes mistakes'."

"But that's the thing, Crutch. I still don't _feel_ like a made a mistake. Spot is… Spot is so much..different.. than people here seem to think."

Crutchy suddenly looked her very seriously in the eyes. "Myst. Do ya honestly believe that?"

Without even a pause of hesitation, Myst answered, "Yes. When no one was around, he was always so understanding, so caring, so trusting." Myst began to look down, trying to hide the blush and tears that always entered her face when she thought of him.

"Ya wanna go see him?"

Myst shoot her head back up and cast Crutchy a confused, yet encouraged look. But then the look faded to hopeless as she realized that would never happen. "You know I can't Crutch. Jack has his eye on me at all times. You know I have to sell with him everyday. He won't ever let me go over there again."

"How about tomorrow I ask Jack if ya can sell with me. Then ya can skedaddle over to Brooklyn for the day."

"And if Jack sees you selling alone, we will both be dead. I'm not dragging you down with me Crutchy," she said, even though his plan was so tempting.

"Not if he can't find me," Crutchy retorted with a very uncharacteristic mischievous gleam in his eyes.

"You know, Crutchy. I think I'm beginning to be a bad influence on you," Myst joked as she smiled her first genuine smile in two weeks. _This might work_.

*Race*

Race had finished selling early today and what better way to spend his free time then heading over to Harlem. Of course there was no _possible_ reason he would want to go there. In all honestly, he was just looking for an excuse to stay away from the lodging house and Snap was quite a distraction. Race had only been able to see her once over the past two weeks and that was clearly not enough. He just couldn't get enough of the short brunette.

As he rounded a corner he caught sight of her still selling the last of her papes. She managed to take his breath away and she hadn't even noticed him yet. Race leaned his back against the alley wall, hiding as much of his body as was possible while still allowing him a direct view. He didn't want to disturb her while she was selling, so he decided he would wait in the shadows until she was finished.

While he watched, his mind began to drift off to thoughts he had been avoiding. _Why does it always seem that whatever you try not thinking about is the only thing your mind focuses on?_ he mused.

A little over a month ago, he jokingly made a bet with Myst that she would fall for Spot. As usual, he won the bet. But this was one bet he truly wished he had lost. Spot Conlon always brought trouble. What bothered him most of all was that Myst had lied to him. She had neglected his warnings, know matter how just they had been. He had seen Spot use so many women in the past, and he hated the fact that Myst just became yet another one. When she came into Manhattan a few weeks ago for the day, he caught an inkling that something had been going on, but she denied it. When he watched her blow up at one of Spot's whore, she swore it wasn't because of Spot. She hid things about her past and he forgave her. But hiding the fact that she was with him all along, how could she lie like that? Obviously their friendship meant nothing to her.

"Spyin on me again?"

Race jumped out of his thoughts to see Snap standing at the alley entry. "Nah. I was just lettin ya finish."

"Uh-huh. Sure." Snap laughed before linking her arm with his. The two walked the streets in silence for a few minutes before she finally asked, "Why ya so quite?"

"Oh. It's nothing. Just got a lot on my mind." He had to get out of his thoughts. They were starting to ruin his afternoon with Snap and she deserved his full attention. _Unlike a certain _fake _best friend_.

"Ahh. Lemme guess. Myst?"

"Yeah. I just don't get why she did it," he sighed, not really wanting to talk about it but also not wanting to lie to Snap.

"Well I get why she did," Snap stated, causing Race to stop them both in his tracks and turn to face her.

"Ya kiddin, right? She lied to everyone, she lied to me."

"No, she lied _because_ of everyone, _because_ of ya. Ya'll made it obvious what ya reaction would be if ya ever found out."

"Yeah.. Well.." Race sighed again, he didn't come all this way to fight with Snap. "Maybe ya right. I just wish she told me."

"Well ya can't always help who ya fall in love with, who ya kiss." Snap looked over at him pointedly. Meanwhile, Race's face became flooded in confusion, trying to decipher Snap's hidden meaning in that statement. Next thing he knew he felt her gently slap him upside his head. "In other words, kiss me ya fool."

Race blushed slightly at her forwardness, but took note. He slowly leaned in and softly laid a kiss on her lips. It wasn't the first time he had kissed a girl, but it was definitely his first time with someone like her. She was so vibrant and challenging, and knew what she wanted and when. Not like the girls from his past. They all seemed to either be whimpering morons expecting a ring for a kiss, or loose wenches expected a coin. Snap was her own woman, she didn't need anyone, yet she wanted him.

*Jack*

Jack sat on a bench in Central Park starting out at a small lake, watching the sun begin to set. Sarah was curled into his side, sighing heavy in contentment. They had just spent the entire afternoon celebrating her birthday and this was her last request. Yet all Jack could think about was getting back to the lodging house. He cared for Sarah immensely but he couldn't get his mind around recent events. All afternoon she had been nagging him to be more social, and though he knew she was right, he just couldn't find anything to talk about really. Nothing she'd want to hear about anyways.

Sarah had made it very clear she didn't want to talk about his sister. He tried talking to her about it a week ago, figured maybe a woman's perspective would be helpful. But Sarah wasn't like Myst. She never had to live on the streets, be without parents, work to live. Yes, Sarah held a job to help support her family. But since her father had gone back to work in the factory, Sarah mostly worked as an option, not for survival. Whenever he mentioned Myst, she would only roll her eyes and mutter stuff about 'not proper' and 'inappropriate'. Sure, he wanted his little sister to be more like Sarah, but he understood why she wasn't and never once judged her for it. Until now of course.

"Jack. You have that look on your face again." She cooed up at him.

"Hmm? What look?" he asked.

"Like you are lost in your thoughts."

Jack shrugged his free shoulder before answering, "Just tryin to figure out what I should do about my sis. But it's not important. What's important is ya birthday," he added, trying not to upset her.

Sarah rolled her eyes and stated, "I don't understand why she is so unbecoming, but.. if it is truly bothering you, care to talk about it?"

Jack glanced down at her in shock, "Ya really mean that? I mean, normally ya hate talkin about her."

Sarah forced him a small half smile, "Well, I don't think someone should be so.. _indecent_. I mean, what do you think they were doing in that room. I think it fair to say whatever it was, it was inappropriate. But, she is your sister and I know how much you care for her."

Jack looked back out on the lake. _No, Sarah is not the best person to talk about this with._

*Spot*

Spot was sitting on his rooftop, in their bench, watching as the sun began to set. When Myst left, he was furious. He couldn't believe she chose Jack over him. He had punched out his best friend to defend her, and she still left. But that was two weeks ago. Two weeks for him to calm down. Now, as the ginger sky danced before him, all he could think about was her. How much he missed her. How much he needed a plan.

**A/N: **Please don't kill me *ducks and hides behind her laptop* I know this chapter was extremely short and took forever for me to post. I have three research papers I'm working on for school so I've been a little preoccupied. But I wanted to get this out to you guys so I didn't leave you hanging too bad.

Thank you so much to all your reviews, so guys are the best readers ever!

I promise I will have the next chapter up by the weekend.


	16. Surprises

**Chapter 16 : Surprises**

The next morning Myst woke up early and rushed through her new morning routine. She was so excited about today's possibilities, her heart was pounding. As she ran out of the washroom, she sent Crutchy a small wink causing him to stifle a laugh.

"Say Jack," Crutchy called over to the older boy. Myst nearly fell over as she skidded to a stop to hear the conversation.

"Hmm?" Jack grumbled, mornings where never good to him.

"Mind if I borrow Myst today? I ain't been walkin so good. Be nice if I had someone with me to help carry me load a bit." Myst nearly choked as she listened to Crutchy's well played lie. Crutchy never lied, aside from when trying to sell papes. He was the most honest guy she had ever met. Suddenly she felt guilty for dragging him into all her drama.

"Why don't ya bring Mush?" Jack mumbled out. All guilt left her body as Myst now shot daggers at Jack's head. Every ounce of her wanted to bark out a snide remark, hit him, do something. She was getting so tired of constantly being looked at as a prisoner. She didn't have her own life anymore.

"Naw, I sold with him yesterday. 'Sides, Myst knows Central Park pretty good." Jack looked between Crutchy and Myst as though looking for some excuse to say no. Myst tried her best to relax her face and make it seem as if the decision wouldn't effect her either way. She hoped, at least.

After a few moments of suffocating silence, Jack finally spoke "Fine. Just keep ya eye on her," then turned back to the sinks. Myst took a step forward, intending on jumping on his back and beating him for treating her like a criminal. Her rage subsided only as Crutchy moved into her path and sent her a warning glance. She had to get her emotions under lock or this plan would end badly, for both of them.

As they bought their papes and began to head of to the park, Myst could feel Jack's eyes on her back. Thankfully, Sarah appeared at Jack's side, anxious to buy a pape. Though Myst could tell the girl more just wanted to see Jack, Myst didn't argue with the fact that it gave her a small window. Her and Crutchy were almost near the park and with Jack so "preoccupied" he wouldn't notice. Myst leaned over to place a quick kiss on Crutchy's cheek before thanking him and running off. Meanwhile, Crutchy bypassed central park and started heading over to Blackwell's Island, the one place Jack would never think to look for him.

*

Spot walked around until about ten selling his papes, but he just didn't have the motivation today. Or any day lately for that matter. He couldn't get her out of his mind. As he walked over to the pier, he threw his remaining ten papes in a trash bin. He wasn't even concerned with the fact he could have sold them back, he just couldn't bring him self to care really.

When he reached the docks, he climbed up his normal tower and sat overlooking the water. A small ferry was crossing from Staten Island and he could hear the waves crashing in its wake. As it blew it's horn to announce a soon arrival, Spot leaned his head back against a wooden beam. He was still trying to derive a plan to see Myst. He knew he couldn't just show up in Manhattan, that would only cause her more trouble. _Maybe I can send her a message, use one of my birdies—_

"Spot?" He heard her call out his name. _Great, now I'm hearing voices.._ "Spot!" This time the voice was more pronounced and he realized it couldn't just be in his mind. He turned his head slightly and somehow she appeared at the base of his tower. At first he thought it couldn't be real, but as he jumped down and embraced her, he knew she was really there.

"Emm, ya here? How? Did Jack let ya come?" So many questions were spilling out as she merely smiled up at him.

"Do you honestly think Jack would let me come?" she chuckled slightly at the notion.

"So ya snuck over here?" Spot's pride at her archness began to swell as he leaned down to place a soft kiss on her lips wish she greatly returned. After a few minutes locked in each other's hold he pulled back, allowing a full smirk to finally fill his face. "How long till he notices ya gone?"

"I got the day, he thinks I'm off selling with Crutchy." Spot reached down to claim her hand and started leading her in the direction of the lodging house. October was making itself known and the wind had already begun to turn cold.

"Crutchy? Hm.. Never thought him to be the type to lie to Cowboy. Just how much time has he been spendin with ya?" Spot mused as the neared the entrance.

"Wow. Way to make me feel even more guilty," Myst joked back as they headed up the stairs and into his room.

*

Race had been wandering around all morning, assessing what Snap had told him yesterday. Sadly, her words were only beginning to make more and more sense. Now remorse was violently surging through him. Myst was his best friend, yet he turned his back on her. As he walked along, he heard a clunking of wood heading his way. Race glanced up to see Crutchy walking at a brisk pace. Well a brisk pace for him at least.

"Heya Crutchy. Where's the fire?" Race half-heartedly joked.

"Uh.. Hiya Race. No-no fire… Just trying to find me a good sellin spot." Race patted the boy on the back and continued along. He didn't want to bother his friend. Crutchy was obviously in a hurry. So Race kept walking, hoping to find Myst actually. He felt like he owed her a huge apology.

He had been walking for what seemed like a good ten minutes when suddenly someone interrupted his train of thought yet again.

"Yo Race." As he looked up, he noticed Jack heading in his direction, a look of confusion masking his features.

"Hey Jack. How's it rollin?"

"Pretty good. Just hopin to find Myst. Have ya seen her?" Jack asked while continuing his look-about thinking she might be somewhere nearby.

"Funny. I was actually hopin to find her myself."

"Oh really? What for?" Jack asked while turning to fall into step with Race.

Race kept his eyes on the ground in front of him. He was ashamed. "I've been thinkin, maybe we been a bit hard on her, ya know."

"Yeah, maybe ya right," Jack sighed before adding, "Wanna hit Tibby's? I'm starvin," giving up on his search.

The two boys weren't too far away from the small restaurant so it took little time to reach it. When they arrived, they noticed they weren't the first ones there, but it was by no means full.

As they headed over to their normal table, Jack blew into his hands to warm them slightly, "Why is it that the first few cold days are always so much worst then mid-winter?"

Race chuckled softly and began looking over the menu. He already knew what he was going to order, but it was still just habit to grab the small sheet of paper. "Maybe ya just losin ya edge, Cowboy." Race joked, but Jack couldn't detect any humor in the boy's voice.

"So what are we gonna do about her?" Jack asked, knowing the thought was present in Race's mind as well.

Race waited until the waiter took their orders and left before responding, "I don't know. But it wasn't her fault. Spot just has-." Race couldn't even finish the sentence. Everything that happened, everything he was feeling, was Spot's fault. He was the one that did this.

"I know. Why do ya think I've been keepin an eye on her. I don't want her goin back over there and getting dragged back into it."

Race nodded his understanding before a thought dawned on him. "If ya always watchin her.. where is she now?"

"Oh. Crutchy asked to sell with her today. Somethin about his leg bother him," Jack waved his hand as though it were a simple after thought before adding, "But I lost sight of them this mornin."

"Crutchy? I just saw him. He was sellin by himself over by York Avenue."

"York?" Jack asked completely confused. "That's not by Central Park.. Wait.. What do ya mean _alone_?"

*

Myst and Spot had been laying on his bed for the past 3 hours, just wrapped in each other's arms. Myst was grateful he wasn't pushing her to do anything. Most guys in his situation would assume things. Spot just held her and casually rubbed her back up and down. This was the most comfortable she had been in a long time. Everything just felt so right. Suddenly she couldn't help the small tear that escaped her eyes.

As he felt the moisture touch his inner shoulder, he turned slightly to look down at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said casually as she cleared her face of any remaining traitors. "I just don't want to go back."

"Then don't," Spot stated as if it were the easiest thing in the world.

"Spot, you know I can't do that. Jack is my brother," Myst retorted in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Ya gonna make me sneak over there to see ya, ain't ya?" Spot jokingly asked, though the thought seemed genuinely intriguing to him. He leaned down to capture her lips with his own, not wanting this moment to end, but knowing she had to leave soon.

It only took a few minutes for the kisses to heat up with passion and longing. Myst was the first to break away. Sure, she had been with a man before, but he left her right after. She didn't want that to happen with Spot. Thankfully, Spot seemed to get the message. He leaned down once more, but this time, only to place a soft kiss to her forehead before pushing himself off the bed and lending her his hand.

"Come on, sneaky. Time to get ya home." Myst almost didn't want to get off the bed. The thought of staying in Brooklyn, staying with Spot, just seemed so perfect. But she knew she had to get back. It wasn't just her who could get in trouble today. Crutchy was in danger as well.

Spot stayed with her, hand in hand, until the peak of the bridge. By then the sun was starting to set and the view was amazing. Breaking away from the red hues of the sky, Spot turned to look down at the small girl. "Ya know, Medda throws a Halloween party every year."

Myst tilted her head up to Spot before coyly replying, "That's only a few weeks away."

Spot smiled before leaning down and placing a kiss directly under her ear. Myst shivered as electrical jolts ran through her body. She watched as he turned to walk back to Brooklyn hands deep in his pockets to keep them warm, casting a smirk back in her direction. Whatever muscles were left in her body, swiftly melted on the bridge. Not even the cold October air could stop the heated blush from rising into her face. She turned and, regretfully, headed back in the direction of Manhattan.

*

By the time Myst entered Manhattan, the sky had turned to that lovely twilight that comes shortly after the sun fully sets. Before darkness enters in and swallows the world. Crutchy had told her to meet him by the Horace Greeley statue, so Myst headed off to City Hall Park.

She found him leaning up against the statue's display stand waiting for her, a triumphant grin across his face.

"Heya Myst. How was Brooklyn?"

Myst swooned at she headed over to his side before responding, "Absolutely wonderful."

Crutchy chuckled at Myst's behavior, stating, "I've never seen ya act like, like a girl."

Myst gasped in fake horror before gently slapping his arm with her cap. "Crutchy, I'm going to pretend I never heard that from you." She linked her arm with his free one and they started heading back to the lodging house, happy that they had been so successful.

*

When they entered, most of the newsies where lounging about, relaxing from a busy day of selling. Myst and Crutchy headed over to Kloppman's desk to join a small group gathered around. Apparently, Kloppman was reading some book to them about an alien invasion. Myst wasn't quite sure what he was talking about in all honest, but every boy seemed to be completely enthralled in the story.

They had just gotten to part where the author was leaving his wife with her family for protection, when Myst felt a tapping on her shoulder. She didn't even bother to turn around, simply held up her hand to tell the person to be quiet so she could enjoy the story. The tapping persisted, so she finally turned to tell them to leave her alone, when she came face to face with Jack. He was looking down at her with a certain calculating glare that instantly told her to stop listening to Kloppman's fabulous tale and focus on what Jack had to say. A knot began to form in her throat as she started to wonder if he had found out about her day.

"Where were ya today?" Jack asked. _Yup, he's on to me._ But for once, Myst wasn't sure if she could lie. Her lies had already gotten her into so much trouble.

"I flew to Mars," Myst stated, taking a page from Kloppman's book. She may not be able to lie, but sarcasm would always work.

Jack stopped to consider her answer for a moment before asking, "Where's Mars? That near York Avenue?"

Myst laughed before answering, "No, Jack. Mars is a planet.. near the sun," as though he should know that. She laughed a little more before adding in, "Besides. Why would I be over by York? I never sell down there." Instantly Myst wished she hadn't said anything. She wasn't quite sure where Crutchy had sold today. Realizing her mistake, Jack grabbed her arm and dragged her upstairs. Myst turned back to see Crutchy casting her a wary glance as he mouth 'Blackwell'.

As they reached the top landing, Myst was mentally slapping herself over and over. _Why didn't I go over the plan more? Should I lie? I don't want to keep lying to Jack, but if I tell him the truth… I'll never see Spot again._

"You went to _Brooklyn_ today," Jack barked out. He didn't even bother asking since he assumed the answer anyways.

Myst froze near the top of the stairs. She didn't know what to say. So many thoughts were attacking her brain. Finally, the thought of Crutchy came to mind. She didn't want to see him get in trouble. "No, I went to Blackwell's."

Jack turned to face her, anger pouring out of his every surface. "Don't lie to me, Emma!" The fact that he used her real name, only emphasized his fury. But for some reason, it didn't phase her as intended. Myst responded to rage, with rage. It was one of her many down falls.

"I'm not lying, _Francis_. Why don't you go and ask Crutchy. And further more, I'm not a little kid. I can go where I want, when I want!" she screamed back at him.

Jack opened his mouth to fight back, but then closed it, as well as the distance between them. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder before saying, "Myst, I know ya can take care of ya self. It's Spot I don't trust. I seen how he is with girls. I just don't want ya to be another notch on his head board." He knew that screaming at her would never get him anywhere. So he was trying the blunt truth tactic, hoping that would stir something inside her. And it did.

Myst relaxed her stature slightly and rolled her eyes, hoping that the tears forming weren't noticeable. She now only felt twice as guilty for lying again. "Jack, I know I haven't been here for very long. But-"

"But nothing," Jack interrupted. "Just, stay away from Spot. He is no good." Jack pulled her into a tight hug, hoping she would heed his warnings. But the only thing Myst could think about, was when she could see him again.

**A/N : **Sooo. I laid out a chapter plan for this story and the next. I'm only going to have five more chapters in this story. (cry) But don't worry… the next story already has 16 chapters in the line up, with more to come as the story progresses. And I promise I will not make ya'll wait months between stories. Once I'm finished with this one, I will start posting the next. I'm also looking into writing a comedy about newgirls.. anyone interested to have a roll, feel free to send me a bio. There isn't going to be any romance so don't bother asking. It's just going to be a fun piece.

FYI: Kloppman was reading H.G. Wells _War of the Worlds_

Special thank you to everyone out there who has been kind enough to post a review! I love you guys!!

cailin baire conlon- HA! I kept my promise!!

XxxEFreakxxX- please don't kill me!! Lol

Eavis- Thank you! I've been really trying to edit much better. ;)

huffle-bibin- Thanks for letting me use Snap! I can't wait till the sequel when she becomes key!

elleestJenn- I promise their father is about to come back. Just consider him out on a temporary vacation lol.


	17. Time Lapse

**Chapter 17 : Time Lapse**

Over the next few weeks, Myst and Spot had devised an outstanding plan. It was so intricate, so complex, no one would ever figure it out. Every few days, Myst would sneak out of her room around ten o'clock. By then, most every Manhattan newsie had well since passed out from a long day at work. She would walk to Brooklyn, where it was safe, and spend a few blissful hours with Spot. Then, right before sunrise, she would sneak back over to the lodging house and wait outside till others filed out. They all would assume she just woke up a little early and beat them down the stairs.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite as complicated, but it was still very sneaky. The only downside, was that she was usually scrapped for the day, too tired to get any real work done. Myst could usually sell a few first thing in the morning, but then she'd tell Jack she wasn't feeling well and would take a nap nearby. By now, he had to think she was coming down with pneumonia. But none of that mattered to her.

The only good thing that had happened in Manhattan in the past three weeks, was that Race and her had made up. It was a very long, very emotional five minutes… but they finally forgave one another. Since then, they had been acting as if nothing ever happened. Back to the whole two-peas-in-a-pod mentality. Yet Jack, Race, and Crutchy were the only three people treating her like a human being. Everyone else in the lodging house still tried to avoid her at all costs.

Myst was beginning to miss every little aspect of Brooklyn more and more. At first, she only missed Spot. But now she missed the way the streets smelled, the sound of the waves lulling her to sleep, the brush of mist that blew off the water. She missed being able to talk to Spike. She even missed not being able to understand a single word Magger said. Every part of her wanted to go back to the way things were last month.

It didn't help any that aside from all her newsie trouble, Myst had been receiving "presents" from some _unknown_ force. Every night after selling she would hear footsteps following her but no one would be there when she turned around. Notes would be waiting for her on Kloppman's desk that would threaten her. The other morning she woke up at four to the sound of her window shattering. It seemed as though some one had been on her fire escape. But by the time she finally was awake enough to get the nerve to check it out (and grab her boots so she didn't rip her feet apart on broken glass), no one was there. She was so sure she had heard someone though.

At first, Jack chalked it all up to her being paranoid. Once the notes started coming, they both knew who was responsible. It was their father. However, what they couldn't figure out was, why he was so hung up on her. Sure, she had gotten him throw in jail for five years. But it was his own fault his sentence was extended for two years. Apparently he attack one of his jailors shortly after he first arrived, but Myst wasn't told anything more than that. Her grandmother refused to talk about it after the letter came. It also didn't make any sense that he was singling out Myst and not Jack as well.

Either way, Myst was now happily selling with Jack every day. Though she didn't want to see anything happen to him, she felt safer having him around. Jack would always protect her, even to his death. Of course, she would never let it come to that.

As for now, Myst hadn't told Spot of anything going on in Manhattan. She knew he was the one person she couldn't lie to. But she also knew how he would react to the news. Every moment she got to spend with him, was not time she wanted to spend calming him down. With Spot, that could take hours if not days. Thankfully, he had not ask, so she had not told. _It's not lying, it's just omitting all the facts._ That's what she told herself at least.

As for now, it was the day before Medda's party and Myst woke up freezing. Kloppman wasn't able to fix her broken window quite yet and her thin brown blanket did little to keep her warm against New York Octobers. Every morning that Myst would wake up to, was all the same. She would harbor the notion that "today will be different". Once she stepped out of her bedroom haven, that thought would quickly shatter into a million pieces. Nothing would ever be different. Aside from her three friends, no one was going to acknowledge her. She would still suffer the defeat of fright at the first sign of her father. She would still be longing for a life she couldn't have. Nothing was ever going to change that. But there was one thing to look forward to. Breakfast. One would be surprised what a stale piece of bread and a cup of cold water would do to the senses.

After her oh-so-delectable feast, she headed over to the distribution house. The past two days, every newsies had been trying to sell just a few extra papes. Each one of them intended on taking the day off after the party so they were trying to save up enough money to survive one day. Myst vaguely mused over the thought of who would be selling papes if every newsie took the day off. It was almost intriguing enough to make her want to sell that day. At least she would be sure to sell an insanely large amount if no one else was out there.

Since coming back to Manhattan, she really wasn't selling up to her usual standards. Add in the few sleepless days after trips to Brooklyn, and she had already started plunging into her "emergency only" fund hidden in her floor board. Had her stomach not been growling in complete protest, she probably would have continued forgetting it was even there. As it was, she only had five dollars remaining. Five dollars she was determined not to spend.

Myst collected her forty papes and headed out with Jack to a new selling spot. Since her father seemed to be lurking about at all times. Jack thought it best to keep moving around. Myst was happy to comply at first, but now, she was ready for it to all be over with. Maybe if they finally confronted him once and for all and stopped running, this would all be over. However, she had a strong feeling nothing would end this short of death. As evil as her father was, she didn't know if she would ever be ready for that. Not to mention, she wasn't sure whose death it would ultimately be. The thought of losing Jack was unbearable and fear of her own was unimaginable.

She was so lost in her thoughts, she screamed out as someone knocked into her. Jack quickly turned around and ran over to help her up. The two of them looked back to see who had knocked into her but the street was so crowded no particular individual could be detected.

"Myst, ya alright? Did ya see who did this?" Jack asked her.

Myst shook her head while standing up, "It was probably my fault. I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going."

She didn't want Jack to worry anymore. He had been so stressed, especially after her window incident. In truth, Myst had a good feeling she knew who had ran into her. There was a certain familiar scent to the man's cologne. One that she could never forget. The thought that she had just been so close to her father that he had actually came in contact with her, trembled her bones.

_Why didn't he just attack now? Get it over with. Why is he playing these games?_ Myst quickly tried to avert her chain of thought. Jack was starting to yell out headlines and Myst picked up the cue to do so as well.

*

Night had well since fallen by the time her and Jack had finished selling the last of their papes. As they began to head home, the familiar sound of footsteps could be heard behind them. As usual, Jack grabbed on to her arm and began leading her forward at a faster pace.

When they were about a block from the lodging house, Myst had had enough. She stopped abruptly and turned around. Of course, no one was there to be seen. This however did not stop her from yelling out, "Why don't you stop playing games and face me like a ma-!!"

Jack quickly threw his hand up to cover her mouth before she could finished. He now started running her back to the lodging house, hand still in place across her face.

When they entered, Jack finally released her while turning her to face him. "Myst, what the hell it wrong with ya?!"

"I'm tired, Jack! We need to stop ignoring this. We need to deal with it! I'm stick of running and pretending nothing is wrong," she cried out in exasperation

"So that's ya plan then? Let him kill ya and be done with it?!"

"Well at least then it will all be over," Myst said despondently. She didn't want to die. She wouldn't if she could help it. But she just wanted everything to be over with.

Jack grabbed her in an embrace while whispering, "I'm not losing ya again."

Myst returned the hold, fighting back the tears threatening to fall. "Just make it all stop."

"We'll figure it out. We'll find a way."

**A/N :** I KNOW IT'S SHORT! Don't hate me please. It just felt so weird to be skipping an entire three weeks of story time and not really covering what was going on. But next chapter will be about Medda's Halloween party…. Actually the last three chapters will all be taking place over 48 hour story time lol. Ugh. I know you all hate me. Again, I am sorry. I have 3 research papers due for college and those have really been weighing me down lately.

Thank you to all of you who will still be reading this till the end. ;)


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